What kind of octopus do we eat

If the pressure cooker is the fast lane of octopus cookery and a pot on the stovetop is the cruising lane, using a sous vide setup with an immersion circulator is a leisurely country drive. What it offers are reliably consistent, set-it-and-forget-it results that rival all the other methods in terms of quality.

What it requires of you is enough time and advance planning to do it, which I found to be about five hours. While a shorter cooking time undoubtedly would work at each of those temperatures, at that point you might as well just simmer them on the stovetop since the cooking times and results will be similar and the setup is easier.

In addition to temps and times, I also experimented with adding salt and olive oil to the bags. Be careful with salt as it can quickly become aggressive on seafood that already has a natural salinity; you can add a tiny pinch, but be very sparing. Or, just season after. The olive oil seemed unnecessary as well; it added a pleasant flavor, but one that you can just as easily add later with fresh olive oil after the octopus has come out of the bag.

As mentioned above, it can help to set a more presentation-worthy shape if you dip the tentacles in simmering water first before vacuum-bagging them. It's also easier to cut the octopus up into parts individual or groupings of tentacles, plus the head before bagging, otherwise the sprawling shape of the octopus can make it difficult to get all the air out of the bag.

When it's done, you can chill the octopus in the bags, opening them once you're ready to proceed. Phase Two Optional : Sear or Grill.

Once your octopus is cooked to the point of being tender, you can serve it right away while still hot; chill it and then use it like that in cold preparations I like it in seafood salads ; or sear or grill the octopus to brown and crisp the exterior. When searing and grilling, it's a good idea to chill the cooked octopus first, a step that sets the skin and keeps it from sloughing off during the secondary cooking. In both cases you want to work over high heat, with the oil in your skillet nearly smoking, or directly over the hot coals on a grill.

Since you've already cooked your octopus to the point of ideal tenderness, you only need to cook each side long enough to reach your desired level of browning, and to warm the octopus through.

As soon as that's done, it's ready to be served. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data.

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Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Pin Share Email. Featured Video. Read More. Rather than iron-based blood, their blood is copper-based, which is more efficient at transporting oxygen at low temperatures and makes their blood blue in color.

Octopuses are solitary creatures excellent at camouflaging and concealing themselves. They are about 90 percent muscle, and because they lack bones, they can fit through very small spaces.

Their skin contains cells called chromatophores that allow the octopus to change color and pattern. They are believed to be quite intelligent—capable of learning, using tools, and remembering locations. There is tremendous range in the size of octopus species found in U.

The giant Pacific octopus Enteroctopus dofleini , found off the Pacific coast of the United States from California to Alaska, is the largest octopus species in the world. It has an arm span that can reach 14 feet four meters. The common octopus Octopus vulgaris , found along the east coast of the U.

The red octopus Octopus rubescens , found along the Pacific coast, grows to about 20 inches 51 centimeters. Octopuses are found in every ocean of the world and along every coast of the United States. Octopuses live in coastal marine waters and spend much of their time in dens—small holes and crevices in rocks and coral. They are generally solitary and territorial. Moray eels, fish , seals, sperm whales , sea otters, and many birds prey on octopuses.

Octopuses use several different strategies to evade predators—they camouflage themselves by quickly changing their skin color, they make colorful displays or eject ink to startle or confuse potential predators, they squeeze into small crevices to escape, and they quickly propel themselves through water. Newly hatched octopuses will eat small foods such as copepods, larval crabs, and sea stars. It is barbaric to eat animals while they are still alive. Octopus feel pain and they feel themselves being chopped up and eaten alive.

In an article published by Vice they interviewed Jennifer Mather, PhD, an expert in the behaviour of octopus and squid at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta. They can anticipate a painful, difficult, stressful situation—they can remember it. There is absolutely no doubt that they feel pain.

The octopus has a nervous system which is much more distributed than ours. If you look at us, most of our neurons are in our brain, and for the octopus, three-fifths of its neurons are in its arms. Furthermore, not only do octopus experience physical pain when abused, they are capable of feeling emotional pain too. This means that in addition to physical responses to pain they are able to experience feelings of distress and suffering.

This was demonstrated in a recent peer reviewed study that you can read about here. The study concludes that octopus learn to avoid sites where pain has been inflicted on them and they display strong negative behavioural changes when they are faced with pain. Factory farming is a bad idea for all beings as nobody wants to suffer endlessly in a cage or tank only to be painfully killed. Countries that eat the most octopus are Korea, Japan and Mediterranean countries where they are considered a delicacy.

Despite the increased demand for octopus, the number of wild caught octopus is actually decreasing due to fishing. Learn more about fishing here.

The octopus is a member of the Cephalopod family that includes squid and cuttlefish — all delicious eating. Twenty to one hundred thousand metric tons of this octopus is landed yearly. The octopus, though an intelligent animal, easily yields to the octopus pot. Traditionally these were made out of clay but now they are made of plastic or PVC.

Instead you make the octopus feel like its nestling in a safe octopus home. The octopus is a highly developed form of mollusc that has a centralised nervous system, a big head and a real brain. It can remember and learn.

Although it looks like an alien from space, it is speedy and athletic in the wild and can rapidly change colour to hide or intimidate the predator. There are three edible species of octopus, but the common octopus, Octopus Vulgaris is the most commonly availble and the best eating.

It can grow to cm or nine feet long. Attached to this body are eight legs. Octopus is always sold cleaned, but in case you get given one, you just have to open the head sac and wash out the guts. There is no need to skin the octopus. And if you ask five different people what these measures are you are likely to get five different answers, all arcane — which goes a long way toward explaining why no one cooks octopus at home.

The best way to judge freshness is to smell — the aroma should be of seawater, nothing else. An octopus that is going bad will reveal itself to your nose in an instant. Most but not all fish markets carry frozen octopus, and any should be able to get it for you with a day or two notice. Two to three pounds of octopus is about the right amount for four people it shrinks startlingly. Like all Cephalopods, you cook them quick, or very slow. You can toss an octopus leg on a hot barbecue or deep fry it.

I prefer it braised in equal parts water fish stock and white wine. Gently fry slivered carrot, celery and thinly sliced onion until nearly soft then add two or three cloves of chopped garlic and cook until they start to colour then turn up the heat and pour in the wine so that the alcohol bubbles off. Then add the stock and water.

Then put in your fresh or preferably thawed octopus. Like all Cephalopods, there are no hard and fast rules for timing. Some people say octopus should cook about 30 minutes per kilo two pounds but often the timing is longer.

A to ounce octopus certainly cooks in less than an hour, and if you put four or even six of them in a pot together the cooking time will be faster than that for a four-pound octopus, which can take as long as two hours to become tender.