Cuttlefish

• Remove the cuttlefish bone by cutting the body cavity on soft side
• Grasp cuttlefish bone between thumb and forefinger and twist towards yourself, the cuttlebone will cut through the hood and come away, tear the hood open along the line where the cuttlebone was starting from the base.
• Cut the intestine from one end and remove from the hood without breaking the inksac.
• Cut the eyes and remove also remove the beak present in the middle of the tentacles (on top).
• Remove the skin from the body by pulling along with the fins
• Tentacles can be cleaned by using rough thin cloth rubbed with salt
• After removing the skin, white meat is the edible part, rinse the meat for cooking

Squid

• Pull out the head from the main body steadily keeping firm grasp on the head, internal organs should slide out.
• Cut just below the eye, discard the beak in middle of the tentacles
• Pinch the two fins together, pull them away from the body, along with the skin.
• Pull out the bone or quill from the tube.
• Cut the squid open and scrape using the knife inside the body cavity.

Octopus

• Octopus - Cut out the eyes by slicing either side.
• Remove the hard beak in the centre of the tentacles, use the opening to turn the head inside out remove the ink sac, guts and intestine.
• Clean out the head by removing the guts, which are discarded, wash the head under cold running water.
• Skin is difficult to remove, quick blanching will help to remove the skin
• Rinse with cold water for further cooking process.

Cuttlefish are processed as whole cleaned, fillets and tentacles and packed either as block frozen or Individually frozen (IQF)
Squids are processed as whole cleaned (skin, gut and bone removed), squid tube & tentacles or chopped into rings.

Octopus are processed as whole cleaned (eyes, beak, and gut removed)

Baby octopus cleaned - skin and gut removed

Cuttlefish whole cleaned - skin, bone and gut removed

Cuttlefish dried

Frozen squid rings

Squid fillet firm meat

Squid tube

Squid whole cleaned - skin and gut removed

Seafood can be kept in the coldest part of the fridge with ice surrounding the seafood for used within 2 days. Frozen seafood can be stored in the home freezers for a month. Storing the frozen seafood in deep freezers can be up to 6 months. Storage in Frozen cold store can be up to 1 year and above. Block frozen has better shelf life than the individually frozen.

Flash cooking in high flame about two minutes is advised, longer cooking will make the cephalopods rubbery.