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It is an urban legend. It takes FAR too much effort to mask the flavour to make it a cost-effective substitute.

It's like the "McDonald's hamburger is really red meal worm" or "KFC is really genetically engineered boneless chicken monsters" myths.

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This American Life undertook a relatively serious investigation of this question (calamari 'rings' as pork rectum) and they basically came away with "inconclusive":

https://m.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/484/do...

I can't listen to it right now (I will later, because TAL is great), but did they do a blind taste test? I wish I could remember where I found it, but some curious foodies tried it and the pork rectum had a... let's call it "distinct" flavour that was unpleasant and difficult to mask.

yes they did. they were able to mask it. they also had some less masked but thought it would just be perceived as off squid.

There was an NPR story that dug way into this myth. And while they weren't able to track down any actual suppliers of pig bung, they did make their own pig bung Calimari supplied by a local butcher. IIRC, the blind taste testers all preferred the pig bung over the real deal, and they all considered themselves to be Calimari "snobs."

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