Gday all.

My questions regard to pickling seafood.

I'm okay with pickling squid; to the point that I like it & my mates more so, and the half dozen jars I make up usually don't last too long when there's people around.

However, my missus's cousin who is a pro from the South East was horrified that I had not pickled the few cuttlefish that have jumped on my line. So, I pickled some cuttlefish in the same manner that I did the squid.

The results........ Great taste, nice tang & spice..... the texture? Terrible. It tasted bloody lovely (as good as the squid), but the texture was of over-baked potato.

Has anyone out there had trouble with pickling cuttlefish?

What did I do wrong?

Any help, hints or assistance will be warmly accepted & greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers. Tight lines.

Have you tried blanching it in some salty water before you pickle it.?
cheers brenton

Have you not tried askin your missus cousin?

hm pickled cuttly... wonder if snapper will eat that...cause i surly wont.

How did you pickle the squid ?

brenton is right i used to be a chef and before pickling we used to blanch in salty water beforehand! but you could also try marinating it in kiwi fruit for an hour to a day before pickling as the acid in the kiwi fruit will break down the toughness of the cuttlefish! have a look in the thread worlds tenderest squid! I havnt tried this myself but it could be worth a shot

Thanks for your responses & tips.

VB: my missus's cousin doesn't pickle it, he cooks it on the bbq. If he had experience in pickling I probably would've asked him.

I haven't tried the blanching method yet. However, if this trick is used to break down the toughness I doubt it would fix my problem. I found the cuttly to be almost mushy.

I cooked it the same as the squid, which was:

Boil salt water in pot.
Throw squid in.
Remove after 1 min.
Place in iced water and swirl around to chill down ASAP.
Put in jars of vinegar.
Add chili, tabasco, ginger, garlic, peppercorns, etc to taste.
Put in fridge for 2 weeks before eating.

The squid turns out very nicely but the cuttlefish does not. It tastes great but it feels very mushy - almost to the point that it doesn't require chewing, you can mush it up with your tongue. Yuk.

Thanks again for the advice. I'll keep trying next time I get one. Hopefully I'll be posting results again soon.

Cheers.

Ah ok. Just thought when you said he was a pro Ya meant a pro pickler???

What about not cookin the cuttlie at all just put it in the pickling mix. Vinegar cooks stuff anyway

Yer with razor fish when you get enough, and the hearts are a good size..Clean them and Pickle them raw in vinegar, and they are beautiful..I even eat them straight from the shell sometimes when collecting Cleaned and washed of course

VB & Sandy: Cheers for the replies.

I have heard of putting the fish (be it razors or cuttly) straight into the vinegar without any boiling but my pea sized intellect has a mental boundary about eating "raw" seafood.

I know that vinegar cures meats so as they could be labelled "cooked" but it's just a small mental speed hump that I will have to get past. (which is silly really as I eat dried meat by the kilo)

Hopefully when I get back from work I can go and grab another accidental cuttly and try out the helpful ideas that you and others have put forward.

Cheers you lot and thanks again for the replies & hints. I'll let you know how I go.

Tight lines.

I actually use Italian Dressing and equal amount of vinegar, add flavors to taste, IE chillies, sweet chilli sauce etc

straight squid no boiling done in 10 days

i did try the boiling method but i found it took longer to become tender

as do i goldie i use a type of salad dressing with vinegar too and me and my mates and family cant get enough of it tastes great. cheers tp

never boiled it.. same a fish.. fillets go straight in raw... taste fantastic!