vol. 10, no.5, october 1981 - Memorial University of Newfoundland

46-DECKS AWASH
Building a better dried squid
r ying squid outdoo rs on a line might become a
D thing of the past if current hopes for Don Andrews'
latest invenUon are realized. " It' s all part of
applying simple technology to the work of the fisherman,"
poin ts out Don, who 30 years ago invented the
first fully -automatic sailfish washer, and also at that
time, a sailfish dryer that was humidostatically and
thermostatically controlled. Other inventions of Dan 's
include an a utom atic:trawl-baiting machine now being
developed In Gr imsby, En gland.
"In this cas e," he continues, " the idea is to reduce
the amount of handling involved in drying squid outdoors
- separating the tentacles, moving them under
cover in bad weather, and all that. The other benefit of
this dryer is th at temperature and humidity can be
fully controlled to produce a more uniform quality in
the end product."
This system for dry ing squid and other se a products
is a very flexible one that can be made to any stee .
according to the user's requirements. There ar e
essentlaUy four components: horizontal drying rack,
drying cabinet, storage cabinet, and rolls of saran ( a
flexible and extremely durable plastic screen
material).
The drying system works as follows : a single sheet of
saran 15 rolled out on the horizontal rack and squid is
spread on the saran. From this point on, the individual
squid never need to be handled again until the drying
process is complete. The horizontal racks are located
outdoors, and as long as cool. dry conditions prevail,
t he squid can remain there, drying naturally. At night,
or when weather turns bad, an additional saran layer is
rolled out over the squid, the prod uct is rolled up onto.
cylinder, then fed into the dry ing cabinet. An entire
rack full of squid, measuring 100feet by six feet, can be
ro lled up and stored away in less than five minutes.
The drying cabinet is a c tcsed system t hat makes use
of a de -hurmdltler to provide cont rolled dryi ng conditions.
By means of long straps, a s ma ll electric moto r
pulls t he roll of squid into the ca binet and around a
se ries of rolle rs so that the squid is ultimately lying in
s hort horhontallayers with air spaces between.
"Squid and other sea products can be totally dried
with this system, no matter what the wea ther," clai ms
Don . "The de-humidifier could also be replaced with a
smoker unit or an individual quick-frozen (lQF)
freezer for use with products such as eaplln, flatfish,
and a variety of others. I am investigating the
production of dried diced squid, diced cod sounds (the
edible swim bladder) and cod puddicks (stomachs).
There is a very large market In Asia, you see , for any
sort of edible, inexpensive fish product that we can
come up with . The name of the game over there is
cheap protein."
Don Andrewl was born In Ship Cove, Port de Grave,
on 17 January 1907, as tbe son of an cutport merchant.
His family used to ship squid through Job Brothers to
buyers In Hong Kong , and two years ago , Don got bls
chance to visit a few of these buyers while travelling in
the Orient. It was then that he started to develop his
ideas, and produced the first matchstick model of a
dryer In the spring of 1980. There followed a grant from
the National Research Council, and Fisheries and
Oceans financed the construction of a prototype. "Most
of the bugs are out of it now, " adds Don, "thanks to
Don Andrews on his sq uid-