How To Prep A Cuttle Fish

[Newboy]

Cuttle fish is one very tasty but slimy, not to mention (to some) difficult to prepare sea creature. There's only 2 way of cooking a cuttle, one is cook it quickly in a minimum of time the other is over cook it so that it's totally softened. Well, there's a third way, not cooking, just eat it raw sushimi style. Some of you might find this revolting but, it's no different to a raw piece of salmon.

 

I am going to show a step by step on how to prepare a cuttle for whatever cooking method you want to choose. For the seasoned fisherman most of you probably know how to do this already so please bear with me, but for some of the newer members or guys who havven't try this yet , I hope this might be useful.

 

First, get yourself a fresh cuttle, preferably one you caught yourself earlier in the day and been in the icebox the whole day. As cuttle can start to go off quickly under the sun or in a warmish day.

Edited July 3, 2006 by Newboy

[Newboy]

Pull off the head and empty out all the belly contains. Don't worry if it smells a little, cos they do stink slightly more than squid. Take out the flat back bone and anything that's yello/brownish. a quick wash and you should have something looking like this.

[Newboy]

Carefully peel back its grey leathery skin, the 'wings' should come off relatively easy. If you have the patience, and want to eat the head (plenty of meat, easily 1/4 of the total body) peel the skin on the head too, including the tenticles, but trim off the suckers, they ain't very nice.

Edited July 3, 2006 by Newboy

[alun j.]

Good pics. Kam ......... I love them too......flash grilled on a hot BBQ; just a few seconds each side.....this caramelises up some their sweetness.

 

I will try a few raw bits when I next get one .

 

With the cleaning method........... I go for the simple one of :

 

- with a sharp knife, cut through the skin on the upper surface until you hit the hard pen; ease the skin off either side to free the pen, then pull out all the gut contents and head.

- then just pull off rest of skin on the othe side ; trim off the thin edges and portion up for the grill.

 

Quick, easy but messy !

 

Alun.

[Newboy]

Using very sharp knife, cut the tenticles into 1 1/2" strips, it's it's a big one, slice it down the middle to make it thinner.

 

Now for the 2 pieces of wings, angle the knife to say, 30, slice once but not all the way thru, leave about a couple of mm attached, then slice again but this time all the way thru. cut across the piece so you have a fan styled spread.

[Newboy]

For the main body, cut down the middle so you have 2 pieces. Angle the knife to slice along the flesh, about 5-10 mm apart, none of the cut right thru, so you are only putting 'ripple' on the flesh and not cutting it into piece (not yet).

[Newboy]

like this.

[Newboy]

Turn the piece 90 degree and slicing it just the same and not thry.

 

You now have a 'net' of cuts on the flesh.

[Newboy]

Now cut it into smaller piece on every 2nd opening. As shown

 

With a little practice, you can cut the main body this way without having to devide it into 2 pieces first as I did earlier.

[Newboy]

To show another cutting of the cuttle, take the other half, angle the knife as much as you can, slice all the way thru. Making sure it's as thin as possible. Like so.

 

This one is perfect to eat raw, as it will be soft and succulent.

[Newboy]

You now have various cuttings from a cuttle fish to use as you wish.

[plaicemat]

Nice one, Kam. I haven't had the courage to try yet but will most certainly do so with the very next one I catch.

 

Terry

[Paul J]

Superb Demo Kam!!

 

Making something so ugly into something tasty is an art form. Youre also well handy with that knife .

 

 

PJ

[Newboy]

............well handy with that knife .

 

 

PJ

I'm well handy with the wife too .....

[Paul J]

I'm well handy with the wife too

 

Must be all that seafood

 

PJ