Squid

Fresh squid keeps 1–2 days refrigerated and 3–6 months frozen. Store it cold, covered, and over ice.

Most squid sold in the US arrives frozen and is thawed at the counter, and this is one case where frozen is genuinely as good as fresh — squid freezes exceptionally well, and much of what is sold as fresh is thawed product anyway. As always, do not refreeze thawed counter squid.

Clean squid before storing if you bought it whole. The ink sac and viscera degrade faster than the mantle, and leaving them in shortens the life of the whole animal. Rinse the cleaned tubes, pat them dry, and refrigerate in a covered dish.

Frozen squid should be thawed in the refrigerator. Thawing at room temperature is particularly bad for squid, which is thin-walled and warms almost instantly.

Squid is highly perishable for the same reason as other cephalopods: its tissue carries active enzymes and it has almost no fat or connective tissue to slow breakdown.

Fresh squid is firm, glossy, and slightly translucent, with skin that ranges from pinkish to purplish-brown. As it ages it turns dull, chalky, and opaque, and the flesh softens. A yellowish cast to the mantle is a clear sign it is past its best.

The decisive signal is ammonia. Like shrimp and crab, squid produces a sharp ammoniac smell as it decomposes, and it does so relatively early. Fresh squid smells clean and faintly sweet, of seawater. Anything ammoniac means discard, and cooking will neither remove the smell nor make the squid safe.

Texture is not a freshness guide in the way people expect. Squid is famously either tender at very short cooking times or tough at long ones, with an unpleasant rubbery middle range — that is a cooking property of the collagen, not a sign of age. Judge freshness by smell, gloss, and color instead.