Grilled squid with gelatin: delicacy or poor cleaning?

The gelatin in grilled squid: market delicacy or poor cleaning

Yes, grilled squid can reach the plate with a gelatinous, clear mass inside. The question is whether that's a market delicacy or proof that nobody checked the piece before cooking it. The scene that sparked the debate is from a village bar: a squid served without pre-cutting, when in that place it was always served open and scored, and with a viscous interior that appeared when the knife went in. The diner sent it back and was brought a cuttlefish. The cook had just been replaced.

What is the white gelatin that appears inside squid

There is no single explanation, and it's worth saying that from the start. Among the hypotheses being considered are digestive remains, half-digested food and guts, that nobody removed; or the eggs and the so-called pen, which one participant describes as a natural gelatin of the mollusk. One participant mentions the spermatophore that male octopuses pass to the female, although that refers to octopus, not squid; another responds that cooked sperm changes texture and couldn't remain gelatinous. Another adds that, without cleaning, the piece can contain up to a half-digested sardine inside.

The most repeated explanation is not biological, but professional. If a clear mass appears inside, someone put the piece on the grill without opening it. It smells like a botched job for some; for others, that gelatin is precisely the proof of a very fresh squid.

Can you eat squid without cleaning it?

The answer depends on who you ask. One school holds that a squid or a small squid from the estuary, just out of the market, is cooked whole and without emptying: the interior sets when it hits the grill or embers and is part of the bite. The opposite replies that leaving guts inside is unacceptable in a professional kitchen and that the gelatin is a sign of neglect.

In between appears the argument of textures. Those who defend the whole piece warn that if the squid is not fresh and is overcooked so that the heat reaches the center, it becomes like a shoe sole. The clean, open piece, with just the right grill, is the safe path when the raw material is not top quality. Some recall that nobody removes the guts from clams or snails in sauce and nothing happens, and some defend cooking them whole, with their ink and all.

On the matter hovers the comparison made by the affected person himself: if nobody would dream of serving fried anchovies without cleaning them or a chicken with antiestéticathers, why should squid be different.

Chipirón, puntilla and large squid: size matters

Here is the nuance that orders almost the whole issue. The small ones, puntillas and chipirones, are eaten whole and are barely cleaned, because emptying them is tedious and there is little to remove. The large squid, the one over 25 or 30 centimeters, is usually served open, clean and scored. And the imported frozen squid, the striking Patagonian on menus, is always presented clean.

The names are confusing. In some areas, the small one is called chipirón and the large one calamar; in others, the tiny one is called puntilla. The same word designates pieces of very different sizes, and that's where much of the misunderstanding about what is cleaned and what is not comes from. For some, squid is the large piece that is even stuffed; for others, any medium-sized cephalopod.

The uncleaned squid that is served in good restaurants

It's not just a matter of port taverns. One participant says that in Santa Pola they serve grilled squid plain, whole, with its white gelatin inside and the green sauce from the eggs, and only in season, when the piece is fresh. They call it calamar de pota, without being pota. In one of the country's most renowned seafood restaurants, another source claims to have eaten uncleaned squid as part of a top-tier menu.

The counterpoint is the bill. A dinner for two with uncleaned squid and other seafood can cost around 373 euros, according to the person who paid it, within a budget that this person admits exceeds 5,000 euros a year in restaurants. The figure raised eyebrows: some read it as a boast, others as the simple reflection of a different pocket.

Who cleans the squid and why the error slips through

The origin of the failure points less to the product and more to the kitchen. Whoever puts someone without skill in front of a grill risks the piece arriving whole, badly peine or unchecked. The affected person himself summed it up wryly: in that bar they change cooks like shirts.

The underlying complaint, according to several participants, is about hospitality and wages: tight salaries lead to putting someone without skill in front of the grill. It's not so much a problem of technique as of who is hired.

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What remains unresolved is the criterion. Nobody disputes that a fresh squid can be cooked whole and be spectacular; almost nobody defends that a bar without a seafaring tradition serves it without opening, without checking and without warning. The gelatin, in the end, was not the problem. The problem was finding out it was there when the knife went in.