During your stay on the Greek islands, you may witness the sight of a local fisherman seemingly beating the life out of an octopus on the side of his boat, or on a rock.

He is in fact initially ‘tenderising’ the already dead animal by breaking down the cells to expel as much water as possible. To kill an octopus you first cut the main nerve to the arms which is between the eyes, then turn the mantle inside out. If the octopus goes white it is dead.

You may also see octopuses hanging on lines in the sun. This is an old method to further ‘dry’ the animal before cooking, as a fresh octopus, cooked with its full water content, would be very ‘chewy’.

With the advent of freezers, a modern approach is to freeze it, which helps to tenderise it without having any effect on the flavour. In fact, simply freezing it for a week or more, defrosting it, and cooking it the correct length of time, will produce an octopus that is eminently edible and less tough than a good steak.