Dried and salted products have always occupied an important place in the diet of Russians, and this especially applied to the products that the sea gave to people.

Even in medieval Russia, in cities such as Novgorod, sea fishing was of great importance. Salted, dried, dried fish it was easy to take with you on hikes and trips, to store for future use, and these reserves often saved people from hunger.

In Siberia, after its development, residents learned how to bake flat cakes from caviar and chopped dried fish- this is how the local population processed fish for centuries.

The development of the Far East is also closely linked with sea fishing, and on its basis in those days, trade rapidly developed and began to flourish.

Today, thanks to the development of technology in Food Industry, a lot of seafood has appeared on the market, offered to consumers in salted and dried form.

What is seafood? Fish are not included in them, but molluscs, crustaceans, marine plants, etc.

The best known to us are seafood such as crabs, shrimps, mussels, scallops, octopus, squid. When salted and dried, all of these foods are considered good beer snacks, when in fact they are delicious on their own. They contain a lot of protein and useful minerals - for example, iodine, which is lacking in residents of many Russian regions.

Perhaps the most popular of the salted and dried seafood is squid, and it outperforms any food that is called snacks today. Among snacks, squid is considered a delicacy, and it really does stand out for its distinctive, attractive taste and nutritional value.

Useful composition of squid

Squid contains many valuable minerals: iodine, copper, iron, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, calcium, sodium, zinc, manganese, molybdenum, cobalt, nickel. There are vitamins - C and B group; essential amino acids and saturated fat. In terms of protein content, squid surpasses meat from domestic animals, fish and milk.

Of course, all this is contained in fresh squid, however, in the dried product, depending on the processing technology, a lot of useful things are also preserved.

Are salted and dried squid good for you?

Manufacturers and sellers of salted and dried squid assure consumers that during the cooking process they retain a maximum of useful substances - not only complete proteins, but also amino acids and vitamins, which are usually destroyed during processing.

They say and write about the technologies for the manufacture of salted and dried squid that they are the most modern and rather complex, requiring special equipment and costs.

The fact that most of the technologies used in the food industry today are really modern is well known to consumers - after all, thanks to them, we obtain products from various food raw materials that are difficult or even impossible to distinguish from natural ones.

How salted and dried squid are made

How exactly salted and dried squid is prepared, how useful it is, and how harmful, ultimately depends on the manufacturer's conscientiousness - this happens in any branch of the food industry.

If you ask about the sequence of processing and technological process making salted and dried squid, then you can see that everything is really done in such a way as to preserve good quality product.

For example, if frozen squid is used, then it is prescribed to defrost it in clean running water, or often change the water, or defrost the product in air, when room temperature- about 20 ° C.

It is considered unacceptable to retain squid in water during defrosting: it must be pulled out of the water quickly in order to preserve more useful and nutritious substances in the tissues.

After thawing, the squid is washed with clean water until it is completely free of any contamination. Then the squid is cooled and cleaned to the end: if necessary, manually; further - salted, dried, cut and sorted - all using the appropriate equipment.

And here one of the most interesting stages of processing is described: the squid is sprinkled with sodium glutamate. To do this, the resulting product - shavings, tentacles, straws - is laid out on a specially prepared surface or loaded into a mixer, a certain amount of glutamate is added and mixed. After that, the product is packaged in bags, and it is considered ready to eat.

At the same time, a number of manufacturers are trying to draw the attention of consumers to the fact that the final product does not contain aromas and flavor enhancers.

We will not talk about monosodium glutamate here: a lot has been written and said about it, and each consumer decides for himself how to treat it. Perhaps it would not be worth focusing attention on this well-known food additive with the E621 code, if it had not been added to literally all ready-made food products. Try to take any ready-made product from the shelf in the supermarket, at least the usual seasoning of spices and herbs, and it will probably contain E621: as a taste enhancer - as if the taste of spices is not enough.

The description of the manufacturing process of salted and dried squid also indicates that they are not processed in oil, and therefore carcinogenic substances are not formed in the product. However, starting from July 1, 2011, squid will be manufactured according to a standard that involves drying and roasting: in corn, soy or sunflower oil, again with the addition of sodium glutamate. Squid caught in the Pacific Ocean or in the Commander Islands area can do without roasting, but the color of the finished product is in any case determined - from a straw shade to light brown.

Is MSG to be added during production? Of course not, but manufacturers will do this in order to attract consumers with their familiar (literally) taste and smell.

And there and then it is honestly reported that in the south: not far from China, Vietnam and other countries of Southeast Asia.

Everyone knows about the degree of pollution of the world ocean today, but it is in the southeastern seas of the eastern hemisphere that a lot of toxic compounds have accumulated. Moreover, in those places there is a thriving business of growing shellfish and crustaceans in artificial reservoirs, using antibiotics, dyes and growth stimulants. If such seafood is often eaten, then the harmful substances contained in them will accumulate in our liver, and serious harm can be done to health.

It is also known that there is a lot of salt in industrially prepared squid, but many people say that it is delicious and dismiss it when they hear about the accumulation of fluid and the deposition of salts in the body.

Is it worth eating salted and dried squid

So is there a salted-dried squid or not?

Better to buy fresh squid, and eat it boiled, baked, fried, but no one calls for giving up the delicacy if you really want to: salted and dried squid is really safer and more nutritious than chips, kirieshek and other snacks that do not give us anything useful.

You just need to eat it as little as possible, and you shouldn't make it a habit. Try to choose a product made by domestic manufacturers and read the composition: for example, sorbic acid is considered a safe preservative and is approved for use all over the world.

In addition, you can find squid that is treated with only saline and nothing else, but caught or raised where the sea is relatively clean.

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Buying ready-to-eat seafood in the store, one involuntarily raises the question of how and from what are dried squid or other exotic seafood made?

What do you really have to eat?

Priorities in people's lives are constantly changing. This statement can be fully attributed to food products. In recent years, beer has become the most popular drink among the population, and the best snack to it - dried squid. Especially on big holidays, you can see groups of people everywhere holding a beer bottle in one hand and a small bag of flavored shavings or slices in the other. Indeed, the packaged product attracts many people, both in taste and in smell. But it's worth pondering what really is in these bright, attractive packages. Judging by the names in the ingredient list, squid is actually present. But is this the kind of shellfish you can buy at any store? In fact, things are a little different. Studying what dried squids are made of, experts came to the conclusion that this is a completely different specimen. In fact, there are giant animals in the sea, which are also squid. But their meat tastes so disgusting that it is almost impossible to use it in its natural form.

Product processing

The countries of the East have developed a special technology that makes it possible to still use the tough and tasteless meat of certain squid individuals for food. But still, knowing what the dried squid is made of, it is somehow not very easy to buy them. In principle, according to the technology, meat goes through several stages of processing:

• carcass cutting;
• cooking;
• mixing with additional components;
• drying;
• frying;
• grinding;
• re-introduction of additional ingredients;
• additional drying;
• final processing;
• packaging.

As a result, a finished product appears on store shelves. The bright sachets quickly go from hand to hand. Everything seems to be fine, but in the depths of my soul there is some kind of deception. Although scientists claim that the product is natural and absolutely harmless, knowing now exactly what dried squids are made of, somehow I don't really want to buy them.

What are dried squids made of?

Fresh squid meat contains a large amount of vitamins B, E, PP and C, as well as trace elements and useful amino acids. It stimulates brain activity and noticeably improves memory. It contains a lot of iron and potassium, which normalize the work of the heart, selenium, which removes salts of heavy metals from the human body, and iodine, which supports the endocrine system. In addition, it is able to stimulate the production of gastric juice, which significantly improves the digestion process. Such meat is rich in protein, but, despite this, it is quite easily absorbed by the human body. Due to the low refer to dietary products... However, as a result of processing, only a fraction of this wealth is retained in the product. And if you consider dried them, it will no longer be so enviable. But this does not mean at all that they do not need to be eaten. A sense of proportion and common sense should be present in everything. Take regular packaged dried squid, for example. Their composition is approximately as follows: meat - 89%, salt - 1%, sugar - 7.2%, monosodium glutamate - 1%, D-sorbitol - 1.8%. Even by the percentage of components, it can be concluded that such a product is better to eat in limited quantities. After all, a high salt content can lead to unnecessary deposits and swelling, and chemicals can cause a severe allergic reaction. So it's best not to risk it.

Face to face

When buying dried squid in the store, it is difficult to imagine the animal from which all this was made. Many are accustomed to seeing these shellfish exclusively in the form of a frozen carcass or a finished product. What does a real squid look like? The photo can only give an external representation. Yes, this is a spectacular creature, and its gigantic individuals are simply amazing with their size. I immediately want to think that the finished product will be just as elastic, tender and quite appetizing. To be honest, some of the desired qualities are still justified to some extent. Indeed, smoked or fried squid looks very impressive. What does dried squid look like? A photo of such food makes you think. When you see a chaotic bundle of lifeless fibers in front of you, doubts arise about taste and pleasure. But this is unjustified excitement. In fact, dried squid has a rather pleasant, slightly sweetish taste, and when chewed, it even becomes a little softer. Perhaps that is why this particular seafood has become a favorite delicacy for children and the best one for adults in recent years.

Drying squid in vivo

It is not necessary to use large production halls and large enterprises for drying shellfish. In Thailand, for example, this is done by the local population of small villages. They have even developed their own technology, according to which the dried process is quite simple. To begin with, the caught animals are washed and freed from the entrails, thereby turning them into a semi-finished product. Then the carcasses are laid out on specially prepared grates and left to dry under the scorching rays of the sun. The process takes 1-2 weeks. As a result, juicy squid meat turns into a rough sole with a slight salt coating on the surface. As such, they are sold on the streets of cities. To give the product a more presentable look, the seller either passes the meat through a press, making it look like a snack, or performs additional processing, as a result of which the product becomes softer and easier to chew. And there are always those who want to taste such a dish.

DIY dried squid

But not everyone has the opportunity to travel to Thailand and taste the local delicacy. It turns out that you can cook such a dish yourself. it turns out quite tasty. First you will need to stock up on the following foods:

1 kilogram of squid fillet will require a liter of water, 60 grams of salt, 3-4 allspice peas and a couple of bay leaves.

The production technology is as follows:

1. Wash the shellfish carcass. After that, it must first be doused with boiling water, and then lowered into cold water... This will make it easier to remove the skin from it.
2. Prepare a brine from the products according to the recipe, put the prepared squid fillet in it and leave it there overnight. The process can be accelerated by making the solution more concentrated (8 tablespoons of salt per liter of water).
3. In the morning, take the meat out of the brine, dry it and cut it into thin rings, strips or break into shavings.
4. Place the blanks on a baking sheet lined with parchment and send them to the oven at 50 degrees for 3 hours.

Now the dried billets can be poured into a plate and served with beer in the company of friends.

Torn squid rich in vitamins and minerals such as: vitamin B2 - 25.4%, vitamin B6 - 29%, vitamin B12 - 41%, vitamin PP - 13%, potassium - 11.2%, phosphorus - 31.4%, copper - 211.4%, selenium - 94.2%, zinc - 14.5%

Benefits of Torn Squid

• Vitamin B2 participates in redox reactions, enhances the color sensitivity of the visual analyzer and dark adaptation. Insufficient intake of vitamin B2 is accompanied by a violation of the condition of the skin, mucous membranes, impaired light and twilight vision.
• Vitamin B6 participates in the maintenance of the immune response, the processes of inhibition and excitation in the central nervous system, in the conversion of amino acids, the metabolism of tryptophan, lipids and nucleic acids, contributes to the normal formation of erythrocytes, maintenance of normal levels of homocysteine ​​in the blood. Insufficient intake of vitamin B6 is accompanied by a decrease in appetite, a violation of the condition of the skin, the development of homocysteinemia, anemia.
• Vitamin B12 plays an important role in the metabolism and conversion of amino acids. Folate and vitamin B12 are interrelated vitamins and are involved in hematopoiesis. Lack of vitamin B12 leads to the development of partial or secondary folate deficiency, as well as anemia, leukopenia, thrombocytopenia.
• Vitamin PP participates in redox reactions of energy metabolism. Insufficient vitamin intake is accompanied by disruption of the normal state of the skin, gastrointestinal tract and nervous system.
• Potassium is the main intracellular ion that takes part in the regulation of water, acid and electrolyte balance, participates in the processes of nerve impulses, pressure regulation.
• Phosphorus takes part in many physiological processes, including energy metabolism, regulates acid-base balance, is a part of phospholipids, nucleotides and nucleic acids, is necessary for the mineralization of bones and teeth. Deficiency leads to anorexia, anemia, rickets.
• Copper is a part of enzymes with redox activity and involved in iron metabolism, stimulates the assimilation of proteins and carbohydrates. Participates in the processes of providing the tissues of the human body with oxygen. The deficiency is manifested by disorders in the formation of the cardiovascular system and skeleton, the development of connective tissue dysplasia.
• Selenium- an essential element of the antioxidant defense system of the human body, has an immunomodulatory effect, participates in the regulation of the action of thyroid hormones. Deficiency leads to Kashin-Beck's disease (osteoarthritis with multiple deformities of the joints, spine and limbs), Keshan's disease (endemic myocardiopathy), hereditary thrombasthenia.
• Zinc is a part of more than 300 enzymes, participates in the processes of synthesis and decomposition of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, nucleic acids and in the regulation of the expression of a number of genes. Insufficient consumption leads to anemia, secondary immunodeficiency, liver cirrhosis, sexual dysfunction, and fetal malformations. Recent studies have revealed the ability of high doses of zinc to disrupt the absorption of copper and thereby contribute to the development of anemia.

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