Keep the squid on ice
Some of you may remember the capture of a colossal squid, or Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni for those of you who want the official name, that I reported on posted last month. Well now it is back on dry land and everyone is trying to work out what to do with it. The Japanese are already sharpening their sushi knives, but I think researchers are going to get first look at this one. But their first problem is how to get at it. Confused? Well read on…
When the squid was caught, it was frozen in order to preserve it and so that it wouldn’t rot. It’s now back on land and presumably in some sort of ice cube, which is obviously no good for researching. But thawing out a 10m long, 495kg squid in an ice cube isn’t the easiest thing in the world to do. Conventional heating won’t work as you don’t really want to torch the thing. Leaving it to defrost naturally would take too long, and would cause the outside of it to start rotting while the inside is still completely frozen. So, what are they going to do? Well, one idea put forward has been to use a giant microwave to heat up the squid. Because of the way a microwave works, it would heat up the inside, not burn it and make sure it doesn’t start to rot prematurely. But bear in mind that the average “family size” microwave has a 34cm turntable inside, and it’s easy to see that you’re going to need something a little bigger! But there are industrial, giant microwaves that can do the job and it looks like one of those is going to have to be called in.
This is a continuing story so as the beast thaws, I’ll report back.
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Hi Dave,
Keep at it. This is indeed an interesting story to follow with complications one could not dream up one self.
A giant micro wave. Hmmm.
As I really love to eat squid in almost any which way, I really wouldn’t mind getting a piece of it, either as sushi or whatever way it’s prepared!
Well they said if they made abalone from this squid, they would be about the size of tractor tyres!