by Mossy » Tue Jan 10, 2012 4:04 pm
The joint med glucosamine chondroitin is made from sea cucumber skins. The meat is used for "clam chowder" (makes better chowder than clams do) and the skins are boiled and salted or dried and mostly sent to China. We get about $10 a pound for them, a bit more than for the meat.
If cukes are locally available, split longways, hang from two close set nail points (spreads the load so the skin does not tear out) on a cutting board and scrape off the meat (both the long muscles and the muscles that go around). Save for chowder, clam cakes, etc. Boil the skins until they look like dog droppings then dry salt to pull the rest of the moisture out if you plan to store them.
Swallow whole if small enough, or grate and add to a sauce (necessary to make them palatable). I understand that the skins taste like cardboard, at best.
Believe me, you don't want to try to eat a half cooked skin. My(starving) chickens pecked one once and walked away from the one I tossed.
I heard something about people boiling smaller ones whole and swallowing them.