There are many ways of cooking octopus and even more old-wives tales about how to ensure your octopus comes out tender – from boiling with a cork to beating with a radish. A more recent discovery is that freezing and defrosting octopus causes the moisture in the muscle to expand and burst the cell walls, which effectively tenderises the meat.
We often find that while people love to eat octopus, they are hesitant to cook it themselves. Poorly cooking octopus can result in tough, inedible muscle, but by following the technique below you can ensure tender, moist octopus every time. Here at GFBF we use this technique as a preliminary step in nearly all our octopus cooking. Once you’ve ensured your octopus is tender you can then use it any way you wish – BBQ’d, smoked, pickled, braised or tossed through a salad. Or, simply cut your octopus up while it’s still warm, sprinkled with good olive oil, paprika and lemon and enjoy as is!
1 Octopus, head and beak removed.
Salt - enough to make your cooking water taste like the sea!