Two dinners of impeccably humble octopus. First experience. How to remove octopus - and is it worth it Cook quickly but carefully

The octopus is one huge muscle. The larger the octopus, the tougher the meat. In order for the meat of this cephalopod to be soft, juicy and tender, it must be properly cleaned and prepared.

Instructions

1. A fresh octopus should have dense flesh, have a sea fishy smell, the skin color should be chestnut, and the whites of the eyes should be transparent and white. It is recommended to purchase octopuses weighing up to a kilogram; they have more tender and soft meat.

2. Rinse octopus under running water, sort out each tentacle, remove every sand and remaining dirt.

3. Cut off the head a little below the eyes, remove the tentacles, and set them aside. Cut off the eyes and, using a knife, clean out the cavity of the carcass. Squeeze the beak forcefully, cut it out and throw it away. Rinse the head thoroughly cleaned of the insides, inside and out.

4. Skin from fresh octopus very difficult to remove. Consequently, cooks more often than not leave it until they have finished heat treatment. If you still want to remove the skin, cook octopus in water for 5-10 minutes, cool it, and then remove the skin from the cold carcass.

5. Now octopus You can cook or freeze for storage. Experienced chefs always recommend freezing the carcass. octopus before cooking, this significantly softens the tough muscle meat. Put the peeled octopus into the freezer and leave for at least a day, but preferably 2-3 days. Water contained in the muscle structure octopus, turning into ice, will expand, tearing nerves and harsh fibers. To defrost octopus, it is enough to place it in the refrigerator for 6-10 hours.

6. From octopus You can cook a large number of dishes. This meat is in delightful harmony with onions, garlic, tomatoes, lemon, olive oil, rice, wine and soy sauce. Octopus is not only great in salads, it's amazing as a main dish. Let's say, try making shish kebab from octopus or stew it in red wine.

In large supermarkets you can find products on sale that cannot be called familiar. But you still want to try them, just as you want new adventures, brilliant events and new tastes. And here the questions creep in: how to cook it? Which side should you approach from? Including the octopus.

You will need

one octopus weighing about 1 kg.

Instructions

1. First, understand the theoretical part: the octopus is a cephalopod; it is eaten in many cultures. The Japanese, for example, prepare sushi with raw octopuses . The octopus's body has no bones; it consists entirely of muscles. The muscles have a complex multi-layer structure; When cooked, the protein coagulates and the meat can become tough.

2. Take the octopus; choose a younger one, weighing up to 1 kg. The flesh should be firm, the skin should be shiny and chestnut brown, and the white part of the eye should be large and transparent. The smell of octopus is similar to that of an ordinary fish, but not very strong.

3. Wash the octopus in running cold water, going through each tentacle and removing dirt, mucus and other “surprises”. After this, you need to gut it: cut the part of the head above the eyes of the octopus. Turn over the body and remove the entrails, eyes and ink sac. After this, remove the beak: to do this, you need to squeeze up part of the body between the tentacles and cut out the organ. The skin from the tentacles can be pulled off a boiled octopus like a stocking.

4. To ensure that the octopus meat remains soft, there are two methods to choose from for preparing the octopus. The first method is freezing. The water contained in the tissues will turn into ice and break the natural intramuscular connections. Place the octopus in the freezer for at least 24 hours, and then leave it to thaw on the top shelf of the refrigerator. You can do the same with purchased frozen octopus. The second method is suitable when there is no time to freeze. This method is called “scare the octopus.” Prepare two pans: fill the first with ice water, and fill the second with water and boil it. Take the octopus by the head and lower it alternately, first into a pan of boiling water, then into cold water. Five or six times will be enough. As a result of abrupt temperature changes, the connective tissue will be partially destroyed. After this, place the octopus in boiling water and cook until done.

Note!
An octopus weighing about 1 kg needs to be cooked for an average of 40 minutes. If the weight increases by 1 kg, it is necessary to increase the cooking time by another 15 minutes.

Helpful advice
You can add spices, garlic and a little dry wine to the water in order to fight off the fishy smell. If you have a wine cork on hand, you can also throw it into the broth. She is great at absorbing foreign odors.

Octopuses are the oldest inhabitants of the deep, believed to have outstanding mental abilities and amazing body structure. The eyes of an octopus have a strange structure and sensitivity to light for marine inhabitants, which allows the mollusk to be the most wide-eyed inhabitant of the ocean.

Octopuses - intellectuals of the deep sea

Octopuses are amazing creatures that are still a mystery to scientists. These creatures unwaveringly attract the attention of ocean scientists with their amazing body structure and strange mental abilities. It is believed that octopuses, along with cuttlefish and dolphins, are the wisest representatives of marine fauna. However, these creatures are significant not only for their mental abilities. Scientists have long noticed that octopuses are the owners of eyes that are unique not only in structure, but also in size, body length and visual capabilities. A huge brain and huge eyes allow the octopus to receive much more information about the world around it than any other animal on the planet. The eyes of the octopus are still a subject of debate in the scientific community, and not all the details of how these animals see the world are clear and studied by humans, but scientists still have some amazing data.

Unique probabilities of octopus eyes

First of all, it is worth mentioning that the eyes of octopuses are very large and make up approximately 10% of the total body weight of the animal. In terms of eye size relative to body weight, octopuses are real record holders in the animal world. For example, in an adult giant octopus, the size of the eyeball is 35-40 cm. The anatomical structure of the octopus's eye is very similar to the structure of the human eye. An octopus's eyes consist of a retina, iris, lens, and cornea. The pupil is mobile and can expand and contract, but the octopus focuses its gaze not due to the curvature of the lens, but due to its approach and distance in relation to the retina. It is believed that these mollusks are able to focus their gaze on objects that excite them, which other marine inhabitants are not able to do. The emotional retina and lens of the octopus's eye distinguishes colors well, even in muddy water. The large size of the octopus's eyes also helps it survive in the ocean, because due to this structure of the organ of vision, this mollusk is able to see objects even in pitch darkness. The unique structure of the octopus's eyes allows it to perceive a three-dimensional picture, therefore these animals beautifully distinguish the shape of objects. Some lovers of these cephalopods suggest that the visual organs of the octopus allow it to see even in the ultraviolet spectrum of light, but this data has not yet been scientifically confirmed.

Note!
Octopuses are very good. Well-cooked octopus meat is a source of calcium, magnesium, sodium, zinc, copper, manganese, potassium, phosphorus, iron, selenium and a huge number of vitamins.

I bought octopus from my fishmonger, but when I asked if he could clean it, he openly admitted that he had never made octopus before and didn't know how. Well, me too, but I took it upon myself. This is clearly a bad decision, I don't even like gutted fish!

I'm reading about this and a certain website says the following

The octopus also needs to be cleaned, so you can ask your fishmonger to do this if you're not comfortable doing it yourself. Hold the head under running water to simply remove and discard the ink sac, stomach and eyes. Then use a sharp knife to cut out the beak which is at the bottom of the head

I'm very lost with this statement; the article seems to say that holding your head underwater will make everything just fall off (doubt it would be rubbish to be a sea creature otherwise!). Is it glossed over the "how" because it's so complicated?

More reading on other sites suggests that the head is very gelatinous and the vast majority of the meat/flavor comes from the hands.

So, based on my own research (if this is correct), is it worth cleaning an octopus (and if so, can someone explain how), or would I be better off just cutting off the head (and taking out the beak) and throwing them away, holding only legs/arms?

logophobe

Once you have mastered this task, you will be protected from everything else. Broken Octopus has a fairly high crouch factor (although it's actually quite easy over a large, clean shell). Cleaning fish compared to normal work.

moscafj

Also, find a new fishmonger.

Answers

Jolenealaska

This is great video, which explains every step. It cuts off the head by cutting above the eyes, so removing the beak is part of cleaning the tentacles.

These are your first cuts.

Cut off the head above the eyes and cut through the head. Rinse the guts, there will be some connective tissue that needs to be cut or broken to get to all the disgusting stuff. Rinse and clean thoroughly. It's simple.

Cut off the tentacles under the eyes (the piece that contains the eyes can just be tossed). This will expose the beak, which is in the center where the tentacles meet. It just pops out.

The tentacles can simply be washed and cut as desired.

It's easy and worth it. Good luck.

Of course, you can keep the octopus "whole" by cutting the eyes into a pie-shaped trim, exposing the beak and guts to be cleaned, but keeping the connection between the tentacles and the head on the "back side", otherwise following the instructions in the video.

logophobe

The meat of the head sac is relatively thin, so you won't lose much if you take the easy way out and just tear off the tentacles and discard the entire head. Totally depends on your tolerance for waste.

Jolenealaska ♦

@logophobe...and your tolerance for strabismus :)

If just recently we saw exotic inhabitants depths of the sea only on TV screens, today they can be found on store shelves. And some of them turn out to be very delicious dishes! How to cook octopus so that it is tasty and healthy?

How to make the right choice?

First of all, you should choose an octopus.

Frozen or fresh? If you want to get the maximum benefit and enjoy the delicate taste, then it is advisable to choose fresh. But you will probably have to cut it up, although you can ask the seller about it (he will probably have to pay). And if you want to save effort and time, you can also buy frozen octopus; in this form, the carcasses are usually sold already completely cut up and even cook faster, and this is very convenient.
Pay attention to the size. Small octopuses have more tender flesh, medium ones are more nutritious, but a large adult octopus weighing about two to three kilograms can be “rubbery.”
Rate appearance. But such a criterion will only be relevant if you buy fresh octopus. The surface of the carcass should be shiny, the color should be burgundy-brown and uniform. No damage is allowed.
Study the smell. It is specific, but quite pleasant. It definitely shouldn’t taste like rotten meat.

Proper preparation for cooking

Preparation consists of several stages:

First, the carcass must be thawed if it is frozen. But this should only be done when room temperature, that is, naturally, and not in a microwave oven.
Next under the stream cold water Rinse the octopus thoroughly to remove all mucus.
It is not worth cleaning the carcasses before cooking; the skin is very, very difficult to remove, so it is better to get rid of it after heat treatment (then it will come off quickly). But if the octopus is adult and large, then its shell will be quite dense, so it can be scraped off with a knife at this stage.
Now you need to cut the carcass (frozen will probably already be cut). To do this, it is more convenient to first cut off the tentacles, but this is not necessary. Next, cut bottom part heads, that is, the support on which the tentacles rest. In it you will find a mouth opening similar to a tooth or beak. It needs to be removed. To do this, first squeeze it out, and then cut it out with a knife. Also cut out the eyes.
Now wash the inside of the head well to remove all the offal, as well as ink, if there is any there. Then you can turn it out and wash it again.
If the octopus is large, then it is advisable to beat it before cooking.

How to cook?

If you decide to cook octopus for the first time, then in a simple way there will be cooking for you. But how long should you cook it to make it tasty? Processing should be short, otherwise the meat will become stringy and tough, like rubber (this is a very common problem).

Your task is simply to destroy all pathogenic organisms. Small octopuses only need to be cooked for about five to seven minutes, larger ones - about 20. But a large octopus can be cooked for about an hour.

You can check readiness with a toothpick. Pierce it yourself most carcasses, that is, the head. If the toothpick goes in easily and quickly, then the octopus is ready. If not, then cook it some more. And after cooking, you can remove the skin.

How to cook?

How to properly cook octopus if you want to make a more interesting dish? Below are some interesting options.

Option #1

You can bake octopus with potatoes. Here's what you'll need:

1 kg of octopus (or a whole carcass);
1 kg of potatoes;
parsley;
five cloves of garlic;
three tablespoons of lemon juice;
olive oil;
salt to taste.

Preparation:

Potatoes need to be peeled, cut into slices and boiled.
Boil the octopus and cut it (small octopuses do not need to be chopped).
Grease the bottom of a baking dish with olive oil.
Place the potatoes mixed with the octopus in the mold, sprinkle everything with lemon juice and olive oil, and sprinkle with chopped garlic and chopped parsley. Don't forget to salt the dish.

Option No. 2

Try stewing octopus at home using sour cream and milk. Prepare:

500 grams of octopus;
2 glasses of milk;
half a glass of sour cream;
five tablespoons of flour;
three tablespoons of white wine;
a tablespoon of lemon juice;
three cloves of garlic;
two tablespoons of olive oil;
salt and pepper to taste.

How to cook?

Octopuses need to be boiled for about 10 minutes, adding to water lemon juice, as well as wine.
Now clean the carcasses and cut into portions if they are large.
Heat olive oil in a frying pan and fry the garlic.
Add the milk and when it is hot, dissolve the flour in it.
Cook the sauce until it boils, then add sour cream.
Now lay out the octopuses.
Place pepper and salt in the pan, simmer for five minutes and remove from heat.

Option #3

Can be cooked delicious salad. Here's what you'll need for this:

500 grams of octopus;
4 potatoes;
head of red onion;
10 cherry tomatoes;
lettuce leaves;
60 grams of pitted olives;
5 tablespoons of olive oil;
1 tablespoon lemon juice;
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar;
a teaspoon of liquid honey.

Preparation:

Boil the octopus, peel and cut.
The potatoes need to be boiled in their skins, peeled and cut into cubes.
Cut the cherry into halves.
Cut the onion into half rings.
Just tear up the lettuce leaves.
To prepare the sauce, mix vinegar, oil, lemon juice and honey.
Mix the ingredients, add salt and season with sauce.
Salad ready!

The octopus should only be immersed in boiling water. Moreover, real experts advise doing this gradually: first immerse the tentacles, and when they slightly change shade and begin to curl, you can lower the entire carcass.
During cooking, do not add salt under any circumstances, it will make the pulp hard. For taste, you can use some fragrant seasoning.
If you don’t want to pound the octopus, you can freeze it; this technique will also soften the meat.
It is advisable to reduce the heat to a minimum; the carcasses should literally simmer in barely boiling water, and not cook in a seething broth (then the taste will deteriorate).
To make the pulp more tender, you can add a cork from a wine bottle (not plastic, of course) during cooking.
Octopus goes well with various sauces, especially creamy and soy sauces.
You can serve the dishes with any side dishes, for example, vegetables, spaghetti, rice.
To remove the skin faster, after heat treatment you can pour cold water over the octopus.

Choose the most best recipe and be sure to surprise your family and guests with an unusual and tasty dish!

Feb 5, 2016 Olga

Octopus. I still can’t sit down and talk about my recent acquaintance with him.

Below is a photo of how to cut octopus and two ways to cook octopus.
I’ve never held it alive in my hands, but there was a recent post in my bookmarks (yep. In the month of August) trio_mia about this beauty and I decided not to look for something new, but to use exactly what was already in my favorites.

So. First you need to remove the eyes - it's simple.

The sharp knife and the eyes were gone. Next is the “beak”. Simple too. Two cuts and it is already available for review. So funny!

I should also remove the ink sac, but I couldn’t find it. Well, I looked through everything and couldn’t find it. He was clearly hiding somewhere, because then the broth turned coloured!
But nevertheless, I prepared everything for cooking.

I cut carrots, onions, and lemon coarsely, filled them with water and put them on the fire. I read “take a big saucepan.” Well, I took the big one... But not as big as it should be. Let me explain. You need a HIGH, not a wide pan, because... all this jelly-like octopus with high temperature comes into tone, the tentacles curl beautifully, the head (which I did not cut off) acquires a strong roundness and rises vertically. So in the water he simply “Standed up” to me and stood with his head above the water among the floating carrots and yellow lemon barrels. This is where I cut off his head)))

When the water boiled, I lowered the octopus into it.
Well, in this way it was safely boiled over low heat for an hour, after which it was left to float in the same water until the next evening.
The next evening, when I saw his color, I began to think that there was his ink somewhere that I couldn’t find. Well, it’s okay, I washed it of this color. Started to look a little more decent. I cut off a piece. I tried it. I expected it to be quite rubbery, but no. Soft, in a pleasant tone, without a sharp taste or smell. Neutral, but at the same time recognizable taste.

I cut it into two parts and started making two recipes.
So. I had half of the octopus already cooked.
I peeled and cut 4 potatoes.

I cut them into medium cubes and fried them until crisp.

Meanwhile, I cut up the octopus,

onion, garlic clove,

a few sprigs of parsley and chopped into two pieces of toasted white bread.

When the potatoes were ready, I added all the ingredients and heated them in a frying pan for literally half a minute, salt, a mixture of 5 freshly ground peppers and a little lemon juice.

This was more than interesting. Firstly, potatoes with bread crumbs- already interesting, lightly fried parsley (this technique is somehow little used, and quite recently I read in one book of the late 18th century about French cuisine that fried parsley was very much used in the cuisine of that time; now, with the help of a microwave and cling film, chips are made from leaves), the sourness of lemon and among this the taste of octopus was not lost.

The dish was a great success, especially taking into account the more than picky taste of my sister, who does not eat half of my dishes)))
Repeat and repeat - just give me the octopus)))
The other half of the octopus was left for dinner on the second day.
I marinated it.

I chopped parsley, crushed 1 clove of garlic, squeezed half a lemon, added olive oil, salt, pepper and pieces of octopus. In the container until the evening of the next day.
It clearly needed white wine. So cold, dry and toasted pieces of bread.

My conclusion is logical - everything is simpler than it seems and there are so many interesting things around that I have enough for a couple more lives and a dozen stomachs. And the octopus for me is impeccably modest and pleasantly caresses the palate with its tenderness, without bothering my jaws with long chewing.
Do you want octopus? Come and visit me with him. I already have 4 recipes starring him in my bookmarks))))

An octopus is one big muscle. The larger the octopus, the tougher the meat. In order for the meat of this cephalopod to be soft, juicy and tender, it must be properly cleaned and prepared.

Instructions

Fresh octopus should have firm flesh, have a sea fishy smell, the skin color should be brown, and the whites of the eyes should be transparent and white. It is recommended to purchase octopuses weighing up to a kilogram; they have more tender and soft meat.

Rinse octopus under running water, sort through each tentacle, remove all sand and remaining dirt.

Cut off the head a little below the eyes, remove the tentacles, and set them aside. Cut off the eyes and clean out the cavity of the carcass using a knife. Squeeze the beak forcefully, cut it out, and discard it. Rinse the head, cleaned of entrails, thoroughly inside and out.

Skin from fresh octopus very difficult to remove. Therefore, cooks most often leave it until they carry out heat treatment. If you still want to remove the skin, cook octopus in water for 5-10 minutes, cool it, and then remove the skin from the cold carcass.

Now octopus Can be cooked or frozen for storage. Experienced chefs recommend always freezing the carcass. octopus before, it significantly softens tough muscle meat. Put the peeled octopus Place in the freezer and leave for at least a day, but preferably 2-3 days. Water contained in the muscle structure octopus, turning into ice, will expand, tearing nerves and hard fibers. To defrost octopus, it is enough to place it in the refrigerator for 6-10 hours.

From octopus you can prepare a huge number of dishes. This meat goes well with onions, garlic, tomatoes, lemon, olive oil, rice, wine and soy sauce. Octopus is not only great in salads, it's great as a main course. For example, try making shish kebab from octopus or stew it in red wine.

note

Octopuses are very useful. Properly cooked octopus meat is a source of calcium, magnesium, sodium, zinc, copper, manganese, potassium, phosphorus, iron, selenium and a huge amount of vitamins.