On Food and Cooking

food particles. Clams, mussels, and oysters
are thus slick and both crunchy and tender
when raw, chewy when cooked. The greater
the proportion of muscle tissue, the chewier
the mollusc.
Mollusc texture is also strongly affected
by the animals’ reproductive stage. And as
they approach spawning and their bodies fill
with eggs and/or sperm, the bivalves develop
a soft creaminess that cooking sets to a
custard-like texture. Immediately after
spawning, the depleted tissues are thin and
flabby.
Abalone, octopus, and squid meats are
mainly muscle tissue with a lot of connective-
tissue collagen and a complex fiber
arrangement. They’re chewy when lightly
cooked, tough when cooked to the
denaturation temperature of their collagen,
around 120–130ºF/50–55ºC, and become
tender with long cooking.