The ocean's "soft gold" abalone: what does "how many heads" mean? When is it fattest and tastiest?

Abalone is one of the precious “sea delicacies”, delicious in taste and rich in nutrients, and is hailed as the ocean's “soft gold”. Its flesh is tender and highly nutritious. So what does abalone "how many heads" mean? When is it fattest and tastiest?

1. Introduction to abalone

The outside of the abalone's body is wrapped in a thick calcareous shell, and its shell is a right-coiled spiral shell. The abalone's single-walled shell is hard in texture, right-coiled in shape, and dark greenish-brown on the surface. The inner side of the shell shimmers with interweaving purple, green and white colors, full of pearly luster.

In addition, the abalone's shell bears a row of spirally arranged protrusions that gradually increase in size from the apex toward the ventral side. Near the end of the spiral whorl, some of these protrusions run through to form holes, and the number of holes varies with the species. The disk abalone (Haliotis discus hannai) distributed in northern China has 4 to 5, while the varied abalone (Haliotis diversicolor) distributed in the south has 7 to 9. In ancient China, the abalone was named the “nine-hole snail”, which came from this very feature.

The foot of the abalone is especially thick and fleshy, divided into upper and lower parts. The upper foot bears many tentacles and small bumps used to sense conditions in the outside world; the lower foot stretches out into an oval shape with a flat ventral surface, suited to attachment and crawling. When we eat abalone, we are mainly eating the muscle of its foot.

The abalone's mantle has the same shape as the shell and covers the entire back of the body. Unlike other snails, the abalone has a slit on the right side of its mantle; the position of this slit corresponds to the position of the holes at the shell's edge, and tentacles grow along the edge of the slit. When the abalone is active, these tentacles extend from the shell holes and serve a gustatory function. A slit at the mantle edge is a characteristic of primitive gastropods, as seen in slit snails, the famous red slit shell, and keyhole limpets.

2. What does abalone “how many heads” mean?

The so-called “head” refers to how many abalone there are per jin or so, usually calculated based on the dried product. "How many heads" means how many uniformly sized abalone make up one jin; for example, the commonly mentioned nine-head abalone means that 9 abalone together weigh one jin. The fewer the heads, the larger the abalone, and the more expensive the price.

3. When is abalone fattest?

Abalone is fattest and tastiest in June and July. In the south, abalone begins to reach the market in large quantities in October and continues until February or March of the following year, while in the north it runs from August to December.

4. Which groups of people are suited to eating abalone

Generally, everyone can eat it

1. People with frequent nighttime urination, qi-deficiency asthma, unstable blood pressure, or difficulty concentrating are suitable to eat more abalone; diabetic patients can also use abalone as an auxiliary treatment, but it must be stewed together with medicine to be effective.

2. People with gout or high uric acid should not eat abalone meat and should only drink a small amount of the soup; although everyone loves abalone, people with a cold and fever or yin-deficiency sore throat should not eat it; those with chronic stubborn ringworm or long-standing illnesses should avoid it.

5. The nutritional value of abalone

1. Abalone not only contains abundant protein, but also many nutrients essential to the human body, such as calcium, iron, iodine and vitamin A.

2. Abalone has extremely high nutritional value and is rich in globulin; the meat of abalone also contains a component called “baosu”, which can destroy the metabolic substances essential to cancer cells.

3. Abalone can nourish yin, pacify the liver and strengthen the kidneys, can regulate adrenal secretion, and has a bidirectional regulating effect on blood pressure.

4. When women eat abalone, it has the effects of regulating menstruation and moistening dryness to relieve constipation; regular consumption can treat and relieve conditions such as irregular menstruation and constipation.

5. Abalone has the effect of nourishing yin and tonifying the body, and is a seafood that tonifies without causing dryness; after eating it there are no side effects such as toothache or nosebleeds, so eating more is harmless.

6. The nutrition of abalone is 7 times that of Australian walnuts.