Sous Vide Cephalopods?

In the General Sous Vide Questions Forum
Both squid and octopus share the trait of turning from tender when barely cooked to vulcanized rubber when taken beyond. There must be an optimum finished temperature for tender results that sous vide prep could achieve.

Any experience of appropriate time and temperature for these tasty critters? Or do I need to simply explore?


4 Replies So Far

In my experience cooking and reading about sous vide squid and sous vide octopus one of the biggest things is that they can vary greatly, just based on the specific one you are cooking. This leads to more variability than most things cooked sous vide.

In general though, I've found good results with squid at 113°F for 45 to 60 minutes (45.0°C) and then searing briefly (sometimes I'll chill it before searing later). I personally thought it was a little too tender but my mother-in-law said it was the best squid she's ever had. I've also heard that 138°F for 2 to 4 hours (58.9°C) works well.

I've never done octopus myself but people suggest either 170°F for 4 to 7 Hours (76.7°C) or 180°F for 2 to 3 Hours (82.2°C).

So it's not a definitive answer for you but hopefully it'll at least get you started! And we'd love to hear what you discover works well so we all can improve our cooking!
I cooked a 1.2 lb octopus two nights ago at 176 for about 4 hours, then did the quick chill and ate it tonight after searing in a grill pan. Very tender and tasty. I cut it it up first... each tentacle, and cut the body in half. I'll definitely try it again, and look forward to warmer weather when I can sear it on the outdoor grill.
Sounds very good! What type of seasonings did you use? I definitely need to try sous vide octopus at some point!
Sorry for the delay in response... I ended up having a problem with this email address (which isn't my primary) that I was unaware of... it's fixed now.

I just used a little salt and pepper for the sous vide part... and then some olive oil and lemon after searing. I'm sure I could be more inventive... octopus, like squid, has a mild enough flavor that it is somewhat of a blank canvas.


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