Squid
Flavour Profile
Mild, slightly sweet, and decidedly savoury. It is a clean-tasting seafood that acts as a canvas for bolder flavours like chilli, lemon, and garlic. The texture is the star—it should be tender with a slight, satisfying snap.
Health Benefits
Good protein, for building muscle and feeling full. Plus a decent amount of B12 for energy and keeping your nervous system ticking over, and selenium to protect your cells. It's mostly lean stuff, if you cook it right.
Buying Tips
Look for squid with clear, bright eyes and firm flesh. It should smell like the ocean, not like a fish market at closing time. Avoid anything that looks greyish or feels slimy. If you’re buying frozen, look for 'chemically untreated' or 'dry' packs to ensure you aren't paying for added water weight.
Storage
Fresh squid degrades rapidly. Keep it in the coldest part of your fridge and use it within 24 hours of buying. If you can't cook it immediately, clean it and freeze it; squid actually handles the freezing process better than most seafood without losing its texture.
Cooking Uses
Flash fry it or slow braise it. There is no middle ground. High heat for two minutes keeps it tender; long, slow simmering for forty minutes breaks down the tough collagen. It is perfect for salt and pepper dusting, tossing into a quick pasta, or stuffing and roasting in a rich tomato sauce.
Forkin Food Theory
Squid is like a rubber band with a short fuse.
Its muscle structure is incredibly dense with cross-linked collagen. If you cook it for three minutes, those proteins tighten up and turn it into an eraser.
You have to commit. Either cook it fast enough that the proteins don't have time to toughen, or long enough that the collagen melts into silky gelatin.
If you miss the window, you're chewing on a bouncy ball.
Wild & Wonderful
Two cooking windows. Either very fast (under 2 minutes) or very slow (30+ minutes). Anything in between gives you rubber.
Fresh squid should be glossy, faintly sweet-smelling, and the skin should peel off easily. If it smells fishy or ammonia-like, it's old.
Frozen squid is genuinely good — the freezing process breaks down some of the muscle fibres, which actually tenderises it slightly. Calamari rings in the supermarket are usually frozen and defrosted.
The ink sacs in fresh whole squid are gold — black risotto, black pasta, black sauces. Most pre-cleaned squid has had them removed.
Don't bin the tentacles. They're the best bit — meatier and tastier than the body.