FOOD: How to Buy, Cook, and Eat Octopus

How to Buy, Cook, and Eat Octopus 

By Jorge Jefferds February 4, 2015 

 What is an Octopus?

The octopus is a member of the Cephalopod family that includes squid and cuttlefish – all delicious eating.

O. vulgaris is the most popular eating octopus. Records show that up to 3,500 tons have been caught in the USA per year. The octopus, though an intelligent animal, easily yields to the octopus pot. Traditionally these were made out of clay but now they are made of plastic or PVC. You don’t put bait in octopus pots like crab and lobster traps. Instead you make the octopus feel like its nestling in a safe octopus home.

The octopus is a highly developed form of mollusk, which has a centralized nervous system, a big head, and a real brain. It can remember and learn. Although it looks like an alien from space, it is speedy and athletic in the wild and can rapidly change color to hide or intimidate the predator.

There are three edible species of octopus, but the common octopus, Octopus Vulgaris is the most commonly available and the best eating. It can grow to 300 cm or nine feet long. On the fishmonger’s slab, look for the double row of suckers.

Preparing

From the cook’s point of view, the octopus consists of a sac, which is both its head and its guts, mouth parts like a bird’s beak, but with a file like construction that allows it to saw through the shells of mollusks. The head also has big eyes. Attached to this body are eight legs.

Octopus is always sold cleaned, but in case you get given one, you just have to open the head sac and wash out the guts. Remove the “beak”. There is no need to skin the octopus.

The stumbling block, according to reigning “wisdom,” is that octopus is so tough that extraordinary measures must be taken to tenderize it. If you ask five different people what these measures you are likely to follow, you will get five different answers, all arcane. That’s why no one cooks octopus at home.

1. A Greek cook may tell you to beat it against some rocks. Actually, a contemporary would probably tell you to throw it against the kitchen sink repeatedly.
2. A Spanish cook will dip it into boiling water three times, and then cook it in a copper pot – only copper will do.
3. An Italian might cook it with two corks.
4. The Japanese rub it all over with salt, or knead it with grated daikon, then slice the meat at different angles, with varying strokes.
5. Others advice to freeze the octopus for 24 hours or buy it already sliced.

How to buy: Fresh or Frozen?

The best way to judge freshness is to smell – the aroma should be of seawater, nothing else. (An octopus that is going bad will reveal itself to your nose in an instant.) Most but not all fish markets carry frozen octopus, and any should be able to get it for you with a day or two notice.

Two to three pounds of octopus is about the right amount for four people, which shrink startlingly. No matter how much you buy: one larger specimen or several smaller ones, cooking time will be affected anyway (see below).

Cooking

Like any Cephalopods, you cook them quick, or very slow. You can toss an octopus leg on a hot barbecue or deep fry it. Preferably, braise it in equal parts water fish stock and white wine. Gently fry slivered carrot, celery and thinly sliced onion until nearly soft. Then, add two or three cloves of chopped garlic, and cook until they start to color. Turn up the heat and pour in the wine so that the alcohol bubbles off. Add the stock and water. Put in your fresh or (preferably) thawed octopus.

There are no hard and fast timing rules. Some people say octopus should cook about 30 minutes per kilo (two pounds), but often the timing is longer. A 12- to 16-ounce octopus certainly cooks in less than an hour, and if you put four or even six of them in a pot together the cooking time will be faster than that for a four-pound octopus, which can take as long as two hours to become tender. Check with the sharp point of a thin-bladed knife. When meeting little resistance, the octopus is done. Do not cook further or will begin to dry out and toughen again.

Cooking methods

Of course, the octopus has long been a standard at sushi bars. You have found it at Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, and even some Italian restaurants for years, in salads, stews, or with potatoes or pasta. Now, however, you see dishes like octopus terrine, octopus confit, octopus risotto, octopus with pasta, and more. Moreover, there’s grilled octopus, which – since it was first popularized at Periyali about ten years ago – has become downright trendy.

All of these dishes can be readily accomplished by the home cook. Cook your octopus slowly. No one wants rubbery octopus (although sushi-style octopus is nearly rubbery), but if octopus is properly handled, without fuss, it is reasonably tender. It remains chewy, but so does lobster, or sirloin steak.

Octopus is much like squid: If you keep the cooking time minimal, under five minutes or so, you get a chewy but not unpleasant texture. This is a good technique for octopus salad or sushi. For most preparations, long slow cooking yields a tender texture at best. If you cook it too long, it may become dry and tasteless.

Although octopus lives worldwide, there is a common belief that the best octopus comes from Portugal. Since water knows no political boundaries (and Portugal is hardly a body of water), the whole truth can hardly be acceptable. Whether Atlantic octopus is fished by the Portuguese or anyone else, most of it comes from the waters off the west coast of Africa. Mediterranean octopus is also common, so is octopus from Asia, especially the Philippines. Domestic octopuses are very few, probably because of the small local market, with an incidental catch, and thrown overboard as often as not. Quality difference between those octopuses from Europe and those from Asia might be quite meaningless.

Almost all these kinds of octopuses are cleaned, and frozen before shipping, which is not the disadvantage you might think. One thing, octopus spoils quickly. It is difficult to maintain high quality during the transport, especially since it is not expensive and therefore rarely shipped by air. More important is that the quality of octopus, like that of squid, does not suffer noticeably when it is frozen.