Squid, cuttlefish and octopus are the three great kitchen cephalopods that are the stars of great classics in our traditional recipe books, and also many of the most popular tapas and appetizers. Cooking them correctly is not difficult, but there is always a certain fear that their meat will be hard or gummy.
Although they belong to the same family of invertebrates, and share a high intelligence that bivalve molluscs lack, squid and cuttlefish They require special treatment, if we do not want to spoil them. We already know that you have to freeze the octopus beforehand to soften it and apply old techniques such as scaring it; why it’s no use doing the same thing with squid and cuttlefish?
The answer is very simple and is given by Arthur Le Caisne in ‘Why don’t spaghetti Bolognese exist?’. The octopus has a meat made up of fine fibers surrounded by overlapping sheaths collagen-reinforcedsomething that does not happen in their cephalopod cousins.
Cuttlefish and squid, as well as their smaller variants known as cuttlefish and baby squid, have less fibrous, softer and more delicate meat, much faster and easier to cook. If it is hard, it is possible that we are using a product of mediocre quality or poorly thawed, or that we simply have not cooked it well or long enough.
Why doesn’t spaghetti bolognese exist? (LAROUSSE – Illustrated / Practical Books – Gastronomy)
Tricks for cooking cuttlefish and squid
The main problem when cooking these animals is that we have a meat rubbery or dry. If we are going to cook them, there are usually no cooking problems, since they cook more gently and it is easy to control the point on the fly, as we would do with, for example, chicken meat.
Grilled or grilled, things get a little more complicated. You have to take into account, first, that it is not the same to cook small or medium-sized specimens, or chopped, than it is to cook much larger pieces. They present a meat that it cooks very quickly, so if it’s thick, it can cook too quickly on the outside and be raw on the inside. And this is how we end up with cuttlefish or hard and/or rubbery squid.
After cleaning and preparing them well, depending on their destination, keep these tips in mind:
When cooking a large cuttlefish or squid or thicker pieces, practice a few regular incisions in its meat, in parallel lines or in the form of a grid. In this way the heat will penetrate the interior before, preventing it from rising too quickly from the source.
Make sure they are at room temperature and, if you are going to chop them, make it into the most regular pieces possible. Control the different sizes and thicknesses during cooking to remove the smallest ones first.
If you don’t want them to cook in their own juices or water, sprinkle them with salt and let them sit on kitchen paper at least 15 minutes. Then, dry them very well with clean paper.
Always Pre-heat the griddle or grill very well., preferably with a good thickness, before greasing it and adding the prepared pieces or whole specimens. It is very important that the surface we use is very hot before cooking anything, and that it is of good quality.
Do not move the pan or turn them over too soon; you can paint the pieces with more oil or use a spray to give them more flavor and help them brown better.
Using a ribbed grill or griddle we will achieve a better result by preventing them from being cooked with the water that they can still release, since the juice will remain between the marks on it, reducing contact.
Image| Kirsten Loza
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