So whenever I’m in New England in the summer (according to my local friends, summer is the best time for lobsters, they’re more plentiful and therefore less expensive) I make a point to have some. Now, there are many ways to cook lobster, and probably just as many ways to eat them. Boiling is the most straightforward way to cook lobster, though you can easily steam them too. I like my lobster dipped in hot melted butter, so that’s what is presented here. Some people just like a squirt of lemon juice, or dipped in mayonnaise. Some people meticulously extract the meat from every little leg. I skip them and go for the claws, knuckles, and tail. For me, cooking lobster is something you do for a gathering of friends and family. It’s so much fun, so messy, and so good, it’s just meant to be shared.
How to Buy and Store Lobster
When choosing live lobsters from the market, look for the ones that are most lively, don’t have any noticeable cracks on their shells, and do have all of their parts (not missing legs or claws). Look for lobsters that are 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 pounds, which is a good size for the average eater. As soon as you get your lobsters home, put them in the refrigerator to keep them cold. Do not store them in tap water. Store them in a sturdy paper bag in your fridge. If you have to transfer the lobsters, pick one up by its body, not claw or tail. Lobsters can live only up to 36 hours after they’ve been removed from seawater, so buy lobster the day you intend to cook it, and don’t wait too long to cook it.
Happy Memories of Cooking Lobster
Years ago, my first job out of college was in Boston; I lived in the North End, above D’Amore’s Italian restaurant on Salem Street, right across from a little fish market. I was amazed that I could buy fresh lobster across the street from where I lived, at the fish market, for $4.99 a pound, still a luxury at that time, but within reach. (This summer, 27 years later, I bought lobster for $5.99 a pound, a bargain for this Californian!) That summer as often as I could I rounded up friends to enjoy a lobster feast. I still have the big aluminum pot I used. Do you have a favorite lobster memory? Or special tip for buying, storing, cooking, or eating lobsters? Please let us know about it in the comments. America’s Test Kitchen performed some tests and, while we can’t currently be 100% certain what approach is the most humane, they found that freezing lobsters for about 30 minutes before boiling sedates them, basically putting them to sleep. This caused the lobsters to move less upon hitting the boiling water. We tested freezing lobsters for 20 to 30 minutes before boiling and can confirm that the lobsters were sedated and moved far less. As a bonus, it’s easier (and less risky) to remove the rubber bands while they’re sedated. Be quick getting them from the freezer to the pot for the best results.
More Fresh and Flavorful Shellfish Favorites
Dungeness Crab Cakes Lobster and Grilled Corn Panzanella Grilled Oysters New England Cioppino Shrimp Cocktail
If you end up with leftover cooked lobster meat, chop it up, mix in with mayo, and serve with lettuce on a buttered and toasted hot dog bun to make a lobster roll.
How to Eat Lobster
What you’ll need: Before you get started, you’ll want to assemble some essentials. You’ll need a nutcracker, a large bowl to hold the shells, a small dipping bowl for melted butter, and what’s missing from the following photograph—a lot of napkins! Note that larger lobsters will turn bright red before they are completely finished cooking, so you do want to time your cooking, and not just go on color alone. Unlike with fresh scallops or fish that you can eat raw (think sashimi), you don’t want to eat raw or undercooked lobster. Translucent undercooked lobster meat really doesn’t taste good. It needs to be opaque through and through. If you cook it too long, the meat will get rubbery, so keep an eye on the time. Eating lobster is messy, you’ll need napkins. There’s a good reason they give diners plastic bibs at restaurants when serving lobster. You may also want to use some kitchen shears and nutpicks in addition to a nutcracker. After the lobster comes out of the pot, let it cool for a few minutes, otherwise it will be too hot to handle. Start with the claws: Pull off the rubber bands from the claws, if they are still attached. Twist the claws away from the body at the joints that connect them to the body. Separate the knuckle from the claw. Pull back the “jaw” of the claw until it breaks, but do it gently, so that the little bit of meat that is in the small part of the jaw stays attached to the rest of the meat (it’s easier than trying to fish it out of the small shell). Use a nut cracker to crack the main claw shell. Depending on the season and the size of your lobster, the shell may be easy or hard to crack with a nutcracker. If necessary you can take a mallet or hammer to it, but do it gently, just enough to break the shell without crushing the meat inside. Pull away the broken shell pieces and pull out the meat inside. Any white stuff attached to the meat is fat, which you can choose to eat or not. Dip into melted butter or not, and eat. Extract meat from the knuckles: Use kitchen shears (if you have them) to cut the knuckle shell along its length. Pry open the shell where you made the cut and you can pull out all the knuckle meat in one piece. Alternately, you can crack each section of knuckle with a nutcracker and pull the meat out in chunks. If you have a very large lobster, you can eat the legs. Get to the meat from the legs in a way similar to pulling off the “jaw” of the claw. Bend the joints of the legs the “wrong” way, which breaks them. You should have a piece of meat attached. Simply bite this off, leaving a thin piece of cartilage attached to the rest of the leg. Go for the tail: Now on to the lobster tail, where the biggest piece of meat lies. You’ll need both hands to get the meat from the tail. Grip the lobster’s body with one hand and the tail with the other. Bend the tail back away from the body to separate it from the body. You will see one, and maybe two, odd things inside. You’ll see the greenish “tomalley,” which is the lobster’s liver. You can choose to eat it or not. Some people spread it on toast or add it to lobster soups or sauces. If the lobster is a female, you may also see the bright red “coral,” which is the roe of the lobster. You may also choose to eat this or not. The coral can be spread on toast as well, or used to add flavor to lobster bisque. The tail will now look like a really big shrimp. Grab the flippers at the end of the tail and bend them backwards gently. If you do it right, you’ll get the meat from the inside of one or more flippers. This is uncommonly sweet meat, so don’t forget the morsels in the flippers! You can pry them out by working the little joints back and forth, or use shears to cut their thin shells. With the flippers off the tail, you can now just put your finger through the small opening where the flippers were and push the tail meat out in one piece. If you have an exceptionally large lobster, use kitchen shears to cut a line down the underside of the tail to help remove the meat. Remove the digestive tract: Before you eat the tail, pull the top of it off. This will reveal a digestive vein which you will likely want to remove, much like deveining a shrimp. It won’t hurt you if you eat it, but it is the digestive tract of the lobster. There is meat inside the body of the lobster, mostly right around where you pulled off the tail. For lobsters bigger than 2 pounds it is worth it to fish around for these extra morsels. There you go! Now just dip in melted butter (or not) and eat. If you have crusty bread, it tastes great dipped in the lobster-infused butter as well. Did you love the recipe? Leave us stars below!
