Perfectly Cooked Boiled Octopus
[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]
People have come up with all sorts of crazy tricks for ensuring an octopus cooks up nice and tender, but most of them are unnecessary and ineffective. You don’t need an old folk method like adding a wine cork to the pot; you don’t need to beat the octopus against a rock (or with a meat pounder); and you definitely don’t need to put it in the spin cycle of your washing machine (yes, some people do that). We know because we’ve tested all of those tricks…except for the washing machine. All you really need is time; you need to cook the octopus just long enough so that the tough and chewy collagen in its flesh converts into silky and tender gelatin. Be patient, and you will be rewarded with exceptional octopus with a lovely texture, ready to be eaten as-is, or seared in a skilled or charred over hot coals on a grill.
Published at Tue, 17 Sep 2019 12:57:00 +0000
