Does cooking octopus in salt or pastry crust produce juicy octopus?

ok, so octopus either needs to be cooked for a very short amount of time (just until it's barely cooked through) to keep the muscle tissue tender or for a very long amount of time (2 hrs plus) to break down the connective tissue. The tenderization methods that involve beating it against a rock or whatever are usually for short-cook methods like grilling from raw.

So if you're baking it in a salt crust or pastry crust, that wouldn't be particularly conducive to short-cook methods... it's going to need to be cooked for at least two hours. The main problem I see with cooking octopus using this method is that octopus gives off a TON of liquid when slow cooking, and it would a) dissove enough salt to make it inedibly salty, b) dissolve the salt crust completely leaving you with a salty mess, or c) both. With a pastry crust, you wouldn't have to worry about the octopus being salty, but you would have to worry about the crust becoming a juice-soaked sloppy mess.

Frankly, I'd just give up on the salt crust. You might be able to fashion a crust using salt and egg whites which would stick together, but I really do think it would be inedibly salty.

If you pre-slow-cooked the octopus and made a gravy out of the cooking liquid, you could definitely get in into a pastry crust. That seems like it's more work than what you're looking for though. Good luck!

From my own experience, frozen octopus as well as squid / calamri, it is best to use the frozen. It is already cleaned and stays tender as you cook. If you have to use fresh they say it stays most tender if you boil for about five minutes then slowly roast in an oven at 200 degrees. I have never tried this method myself. I always used frozen.

Octopus is a bit similar to Calamari or squid. Simmer gently in stock or water for three to four hours. Test after two and a half, three and three and a half hours.

Or do same in a slow oven.

In both cases, pan must be covered.