Fishmonger Reveals the Secret to Making Octopus Incredibly Tender in Minutes

#Octopus #Seafood #FishMonger 🛒 The complete guide to buying, preparing, and cooking tender octopus: https://guspetrakis.netlify.app You walk past the octopus in the case because you remember the last one you cooked came out like a rubber band. You think the problem was the octopus. It was not. The problem was what you did or did not do before you ever touched a pot. I spent thirty-one years behind a fish counter watching this happen, and it is always the same seven mistakes. Most people buy octopus already cut, which dries it out before you even start. Others do not ask if it was previously frozen, which is usually good news because freezing does part of the tenderizing for you. They skip the cleaning and end up with a beak in their finished dish. They cook it too fast, which seizes the muscle and locks in the toughness. And then they do not rest it overnight, which is the single step that separates tender octopus from the ruined kind every single time. The overnight rest is not complicated. It is just time in the refrigerator. After you braise it low and slow, you let it cool, then refrigerate it for about twenty hours. The collagen resets just enough to hold its shape when you do the final cook. That final cook is fast—ninety seconds per side in a hot pan for char. The whole process, start to finish, produces octopus that is tender all the way through instead of stringy outside and soft in the middle. There is one more thing most people do not know: ask your counter whether you are buying common octopus or baby octopus. They cook completely differently. Common octopus is what you want for the braise method. At my counter it runs around sixteen to twenty-two dollars a pound depending on the season and origin. The homework is specific. Go to your market on a Saturday morning before noon. Ask three things: was it previously frozen, is it common octopus, and can they remove the beak. Use those exact words. Then come back here and tell me what it costs in your town. • The seven mistakes that produce tough octopus and how to skip every one • How to check the animal at the counter—what you press, what you smell, what you look for • The exact temperatures and times: 180 to 190 degrees, forty-five minutes to an hour and fifteen minutes • Why overnight refrigeration is the secret nobody puts at the front • The final cook: why ninety seconds per side is all you need CHAPTERS: 00:00 – The case, the doubt, and what you are really standing in front of 02:15 – Mistake #7: Buying it already cut 03:45 – Mistake #6: Not asking if it was frozen 05:00 – Mistake #5: Skipping the cleaning 06:15 – Mistake #4: Not knowing what it should feel like 07:45 – Mistake #3: Cooking it too fast 09:30 – The exact method: low braise, tight lid, bare simmer 11:15 – Mistake #2: Not resting it overnight 13:00 – The overnight rest is the whole secret 14:30 – The final cook: char marks and nothing more 15:45 – Mistake #1: Not knowing which octopus to ask for 17:00 – Common octopus vs. baby octopus 18:15 – Your homework this week Tell me in the comments what town you are in and what a pound of whole octopus is running at your counter. Just the town and the number. I read every one. New video every week. Subscribe. #SeafoodTips #HowToCookFish #Shellfish #CookingTips #FishCounter