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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.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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

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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.

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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.

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