Squid ink was Re: [Sca-cooks] Basque Food

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Sep 7, 2005, at 9:03 PM, Patrick Levesque wrote:

> Er, please enlighten me here ... What does squid ink taste like?

Hmmm. I've never been asked that before, so I have no stock answer. I  
guess I'd say it's rich and ocean-tasting (in a way things like sea  
urchin can be), with an occasional slight bitter aftertaste. Mostly  
it's eaten in with other foods for its color (black in quantity,  
brown, as in "sepia", in dilute quantities). Like blood, it thickens  
just a bit when cooked, and can "break" into black specks and a  
thinner, lighter-colored liquid if overheated.

> Where do
> you find it, or under what brand is it marketed?

Again, hmmm. Sometimes you can get a little packet of the processed  
ink packaged with things like fresh pasta. You might be able to get  
it in some processed commercial [food-safe] venue, but the most  
obvious place to get it is from fresh squid. Each squid has a little  
clearish sac of it behind each eye, under the mantle. Just gently  
pull the head and tentacles and entrails out from the body sac, and  
you'll see the little sacs full of black stuff between the eyes and  
the entrails. The stuff that looks like ink is, in fact, ink.

> And is it actually safe for young children and nursing women (I'm  
> concerned
> about mercury levels mostly, and other such drawbacks)?

I'm not sure about this. I assume it's like most other seafood  
products, wherein people aren't supposed to eat more than a certain  
amount in a given month. A little goes a long way, though, so I can't  
imagine anyone eating very much.

Adamantius




"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la  
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them  
eat cake!"
     -- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,  
"Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
     -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry  
Holt, 07/29/04