Calories in Squid (calamari)

What makes squid (calamari) so powerful?

Squid belong to the class Cephalopoda, a group of mollusks that evolved to lose their external shells in favor of speed and agility. To move, they draw water into their mantle cavity and forcefully expel it through a funnel called a siphon, essentially jet-propelling themselves through the ocean. The part of the squid most commonly eaten as calamari is this muscular mantle, which acts as the engine for this jet propulsion. Because this muscle is designed for rapid, explosive bursts of movement rather than sustained endurance, it is composed of highly concentrated, low-fat protein fibers. A fascinating biological quirk of squid muscle is its collagen structure. Unlike mammalian muscle, which toughens gradually as it cooks, squid collagen undergoes a dramatic phase transition. It stays tender during a very brief high-heat sear, but if cooked for just a minute too long, it rapidly seizes and becomes rubbery. The trick to tender calamari is either cooking it for under two minutes or braising it for over thirty minutes, allowing the toughened collagen to eventually melt back into gelatin.