How to properly and quickly clean squid from film at home: step-by-step instructions (video)

What you need to pay attention to when buying frozen squid meat - Freezing and storage conditions - Color and size of the carcass - Smell - Catch time and expiration date

How to properly defrost squid meat How to clean defrosted squid meat at home: two methods - Cold (stocking) method - Hot method

How to peel boiled squid from film

How to clean fresh squid

The fastest way to clean squid (if time is short)

How to cook squid correctly

Squid meat is dietary and contains many microelements beneficial to the human body. To prevent the meat of these mollusks from turning into “rubber,” it must be properly prepared. We will tell you how to properly clean the meat of fresh and frozen squid from the film and then cook it so that it does not lose its taste and beneficial properties.

KBJU squid (and other seafood)

The content of substances is indicated as a percentage of weight, and calorie content in kcal/100 grams.

Is it possible to remove the film from defrosted meat?

There are situations when squids come home already defrosted. Summer heat and unforeseen travel delays should not prevent you from preparing a delicious dish. To do this, you need to perform the following algorithm.

1. Prepare a pan of boiling water and seasonings (salt, bay leaf and pepper).
2. Cut the carcass lengthwise and remove the entrails.
3. Rinse the meat well.
4. Boil the carcasses in seasoned boiling water for 2-3 minutes.
5. Remove the squid. In this case, the films will remain in the water, calving themselves.

What to look for when buying frozen squid meat

The main stage on which all subsequent ones depend is the choice of squid meat. In order not to make a mistake and not spoil your dinner, it is important to pay attention to the following factors:

• Freezing and storage conditions

If squid meat stored in industrial packaging is tightly stuck together and frozen to each other, then you should not buy it. Ice and dark spots on the surface of the skin indicate that the carcasses are of poor quality. This means they have been frozen more than once.

• Carcass color and size

Choose smaller carcasses. The meat of young animals is tastier. Pay attention to how the squid's skin and tentacles look. They should be white or cream in color. Pink, yellow and lilac indicate that the product has been re-frozen, which means the meat will be tough and tasteless.

• Smell

Fresh squid meat smells good. It does not emit a strong ammonia or rotten smell. If the meat exudes a stench, then you cannot buy such products.

• Catch time and expiration date

Frozen shellfish can be stored for no more than 2 years; it is better to choose squid caught in July or August.

Useful tips

• Squid contains phosphorus and fluoride for teeth. And there is so much protein that you can cook them instead of meat during Lent. Pasta with squid is a wonderful dish for lovers of sea delicacies.
• Seafood dishes are extremely tasty, but expensive. Therefore, they are often prepared for the holidays. Shrimp in batter will diversify the holiday menu and surprise guests and household members.
• In addition to expensive seafood, there are quite affordable seafood. Meanwhile, pollock fillet in the oven can be cooked so deliciously that you will buy it again and again.
• Herring is another fish familiar to everyone. Many people know how to salt it, so it’s time to prepare herring oil.
• Crab stick salad has already competed with everyone's favorite Olivier salad. In order not to prepare two salads at the same time, you can prepare crab sticks in batter.

Before you try the gifts of the ocean, you need to learn how to cut them correctly. Share in the comments, did you succeed in cleaning sea mollusks using our advice?

How to properly defrost squid meat

There are two gentle methods for defrosting the carcasses of this seafood:

1. Transfer the meat from the freezer to the refrigerator compartment and wait until completely thawed. There is no need to place a bag of frozen food in a container of water.
2. Leave the squid meat on an open surface at room temperature. This way the shellfish will retain their beneficial nutritional qualities and delicate taste.

Important! Do not defrost squid meat in the microwave, steam, hot water or using heating appliances.

Dishes with squid

Tomato soup with squid

Prepared like a classic seafood soup. Chop the shallots, garlic, thyme, fry everything in a frying pan in oil. Add cleaned squid, then a quarter glass of white wine, evaporate, pour vegetable or fish broth over everything. Peel the tomatoes, chop to a puree consistency and add to the total mass. Let it boil, cook for 2 minutes, add butter, salt, pepper, sugar.

Ingredients for tomato soup with squid

Tomato soup with squid

Breaded squid rings

Cut the cleaned squid into rings, add salt and pepper. Separately prepare the standard ingredients for breading: egg, flour, crackers. Dip the squid in flour, then in a well-beaten egg, again in flour and carefully coat in breadcrumbs.

Place the breaded rings in the freezer for 10 minutes - this will “set the shape” and make them easier to fry. Heat the oil to 160 degrees, lower the squid rings into the oil for 1.5 minutes. Place on a napkin to drain excess oil. Serve with any sauces: tartar, adjika, garlic, sour cream or hot sauce.

Ingredients for breaded malmars

Breaded squid rings

Stuffed squid

Pre-clean the squid. Wrap the potatoes in foil and bake in the oven, then cut out the core, mix with butter and soft cheese, add finely chopped poached green onions. Stuff the cleaned squid with the filling, pierce it with a skewer, and fry in a frying pan for 40 seconds until golden brown. Place on parchment and place in the oven for 5 minutes at 180 degrees. Serve the appetizer with green butter and cherry tomatoes.

Ingredients for stuffed squid

Stuffed squid

How to clean thawed squid meat at home: two methods

Cold (stocking) method

According to the rules of the cold cleaning method, you need to sharply pull the film off the thawed squid carcass or, conversely, slowly pull off the film. For everything to go perfectly, you need to carefully pry the skin with your fingernail or something sharp. Afterwards, you can remove the mollusk's entrails, solid particles and chord. The final pre-processing step is to turn the squid inside out.

Hot method

Before hot cleaning squid, remove the chitinous spine, internal elements, head, hard beak and, if necessary, tentacles. The hot method is suitable if you have already defrosted and frozen seafood several times. So, first rinse the carcasses in a colander, then put them in boiling water for 5-10 seconds and then dip them in cold water. As soon as the film wrinkles, remove it.

Cold method

When frozen squids are completely thawed, you can use the cold method of peeling them. Here's how you can use it to clean squid:

1. Carefully pry off the skin from the side of the circular hole. To do this, you can use a sharp knife or the edge of your nail.
2. Carefully remove it towards the fins. The carcass must be held tightly against the cutting board so that the squid can be processed in one go.
3. It is advisable, in order to make processing easier, not to defrost the carcass completely. Let it remain slightly frozen.
4. Repeat this manipulation several times until all the skin is completely removed.
5. Then simply rinse the squid under running water.
6. If you need to keep the carcass intact for further stuffing, you need to carefully turn the seafood inside out and clean all the insides.
7. After this, carefully pull out the chord and other solid parts.
8. If there is no need to leave the carcass whole, it is further cut up. It is important that the cleaning is completely completed at this point, since it will be almost impossible to peel off the skin after cutting.

Further processing depends on the cooking method.

How to peel boiled squid from film

If you boiled squid carcasses in film, then let the meat cool. Once they are lukewarm, run over them with a soft kitchen brush under running water. When rubbed, the transparent film rolls and peels off. This method is used exclusively in cases where the squid is then cooked in spicy or salty marinades.

Minus: squid meat may lose its pleasant taste and juiciness.

Important! You can only cook defrosted and gutted squid, in which the tentacles and head have been previously separated, and the entrails and chord plate have been removed from the body.

Removing the film

Since you need to peel seafood not only from the skin, but also to remove all the thin transparent films, you need to know exactly how to do this.

The fact is that under the upper translucent skin there is a film hidden, which may not be noticed during cleaning. If left, it may also coagulate during cooking. Therefore, it is necessary:

1. Using a sharp knife blade or the edge of a nail, pry the edge from the entrance to the squid carcass. A thin film will separate.
2. You shouldn’t immediately try to separate it from the meat; it’s better to put your finger under it, trying to move it as deep as possible.
3. Thus, moving the film away from the main part, carefully remove it over the entire area.
4. If you tear it off, it will come off in strips and this process will take a lot of time.
5. If you leave it on the carcass, it will be wrong, as it will give the meat a tougher structure.

How to clean fresh squid

If you bought fresh squid meat, then before removing the film from it, you need to remove the head and insides of the mollusk from the so-called hood.

Take the squid with both hands - one by the base of the head, the other by the body itself (hood), and then with a sharp, but too strong movement, remove it from the hood. Afterwards, separate the heads from the tentacles, remove the entrails and chitinous rod from the body. Rinse the edible parts under running water and proceed to the cold method of removing the film.

Tips for choosing squid

The taste will directly depend on the appearance of the seafood. More often on store shelves you can find squid carcasses, fillets and rings. The fillet is subjected to mechanical cleaning and for this, some manufacturers use chemicals. And rings are often leftovers from large carcasses or with damaged integrity; they can be repeatedly frozen and defrosted. Therefore, it is best to choose unpeeled carcasses.

When purchasing, make sure that there is no heavy ice and snow, and that the carcasses are not stuck together. Be sure to check the expiration date and production date. The body should be undamaged and pinkish-brick in color. If you take peeled ones, the color should be white.

Squid is a tasty and nutritious product. They are prepared quickly and are suitable for many dishes. It’s not difficult to learn how to clean them yourself; it will take some skill and time. But you will be confident in their safety and usefulness.

The fastest way to clean squid (if time is short)

If guests are already on the way and you need to quickly figure something out, then a salad with squid or other dishes with this shellfish are ideal. First of all, because it cooks quickly, and food with it always looks unusual.

So, if time is short, then you don’t even have to defrost the squid meat. Simply place the carcasses in a bowl, add boiling water and leave to cool for 2 minutes. Then place the meat under running cold water. The skin will wrinkle and it will not be difficult to remove it.

The next stage is gutting. There is no way to do this without removing the entrails and chord.

Carcass cutting

The cutting of the squid depends on the cooking method. The entire step-by-step process should move in the following direction:

1. First, the seafood is defrosted, under no circumstances allowing it to be immediately dropped into boiling water. you need to let it thaw under natural conditions. This will preserve the juiciness of the meat and its taste characteristics.
2. After this, clean the top skin using one of the most convenient methods.
3. Then peel off the thin transparent film.
4. After this, pull out the insides and the chord, which resembles a transparent plastic strip.
5. Rinse under running water inside and out.
6. And only after all these step-by-step actions, cut the squid as needed in accordance with the recipe.

When the tube is left whole, in this case, the stuffing method is most often used during cooking. The cavity is filled with various products, the edge is pinched and baked in the oven or grilled.

In other cases, after defrosting and cleaning, you need to cut the squid into pieces.

If you need to get small pieces of squid, you need to know exactly how to quickly clean and cut this type of seafood:

1. A knife blade is inserted into the tube. The sharp edge is directed upwards.
2. With your left hand, you need to pull the carcass down so that the blade rests on the inside of the meat.
3. Carefully, using a pressing motion, cut the squid along the entire length of the tube.
4. Wash the inside, remove the chord.
5. Separate the “wings” from the carcass. This can be done either by hand or by cutting them with a knife.
6. Then cut the resulting tube triangle along the line in which the chordal part was located. It is easily traced visually, as it is a kind of scar running along the entire carcass.
7. After this, cut the squid crosswise into strips for the salad.
8. If you need to grill, you can simply cut the triangle of the carcass into 2 parts. And leave the “wings” separately.
9. Or grind in any way that suits the further cooking process. Such small parts most often need to be boiled or baked.

To better understand how to clean and cut squid meat, you can additionally watch a video in which all steps are performed sequentially and are extremely easy to understand.

How to cook squid correctly

In order for the meat to be soft and tasty, to retain its structure, pleasant taste and aroma, you need to boil it properly.

Basic methods of cooking squid:

1. Add bay leaf, salt, pepper and other spices to taste to boiling water. Then place the cleaned squid meat in the pan for 10 seconds. After the time has passed, remove the clam and leave to cool at room temperature. Place the squid meat in boiling salted water and immediately remove the pan from the stove. Leave the meat in boiling water for 10-12 minutes. When the time is up, take it out. The main thing is not to overdo it.

2. Frozen carcasses can be boiled without defrosting. To do this, they must be placed in boiling water and left there for 1-2 minutes. After turning off the heat, leave the meat to simmer for 3-4 minutes. Then take it out.

Important! If squid meat is overcooked, it becomes tasteless and tough. Therefore, you should always strictly adhere to the cooking time.

Secrets from the boss

• The first rule for cleaning a shellfish is to create a temperature difference for it . For example, to clean the carcass of a frozen squid, you need to pour boiling water over it, while a freshly boiled one needs to be poured with ice water.

Now you know how to clean frozen squid. It's time to learn how to cook them.

• Only completely thawed carcasses can be cooked. To defrost the squid, it is recommended to fill it with salted cold water.
• The first rule of cooking shellfish is not to expose it to shock temperatures . If you boil, the water should not boil. Simmer – the contents of the pan should not boil. If you cook the carcass for more than 2 minutes, it will turn into a rubber eraser. As soon as the meat turns white, it must be immediately removed from the boiling water.
• In case the meat is still overcooked in boiling water , the cooks have a secret: continue cooking for another 40-50 minutes. It won’t become completely soft, but you can still chew it.
• Clams are boiled for salads, but you can stew them in sauces or wine, fry them in a frying pan or grill and bake them.
• Carcasses and tentacles are ideal for stuffing . They can be filled with anything: cheese, rice, mushrooms, nuts, tomatoes.