Octopus

Appears in
Professional Cooking: 8th Edition
Professional Cooking

By Wayne Gisslen

Published 2014

  • About

Octopus (the name means “eight feet”) range in size from less than an ounce to many pounds. All sizes are firm-textured, even chewy, but the larger sizes are usually considered too tough to eat. Because of its texture, octopus requires either mechanical tenderization (such as pounding with a mallet) or long, slow cooking in a court bouillon.

Like squid, octopus is cleaned by cutting off the tentacles, discarding the head and beak, and eviscerating the body cavity. Pull the skin off the body pouch and tentacles; it may be necessary to parboil the octopus a few minutes to loosen the skin. The skin is reddish gray, turning purple-red when cooked.