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mushy lobster tails

post #1 of 6
12/30/07 at 9:58pm
Thread Starter 
Hi all! My restaurant serves 22 ounce australian lobster tails. Occasionally , the finished tail has an incredibly unattractive mushy texture, I believe this is a result of freezing, thawing, and refreezing, however thee is another opinion that lobsters release an enzyme as a defense mechanism. As this only occurs with 2 out of every hundred tails or so, I'm not entirely sure what to think of this theory. Are there any lobster experts willing to teach an old dog something new?
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post #2 of 6
12/31/07 at 1:42am
Lobster was dead before being processed. Scream at your supplier and ask for a refund.
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post #3 of 6
1/1/08 at 6:34am

Mushy crustacean

Do get a refund that stuff is expensive!
I understand it has to do with the diet or the fact that they are in a reprodcutive state that affects texture.
I have had that experience with some fish, monkfish, sword etc.
My fishmonger said what I shared above. Its not your M O P.
It could well have been dead as well!
I also know there is a differnce in meat texture between warm water and cold water lobster (and price) I beleive cold water is best.
That is someting I need to learn more about, among other things.
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post #4 of 6
1/1/08 at 9:24pm
Well we serve a lot of lobster tails, 5oz and 8oz to be exact.

A lot of times i notice with the larger ones, when you crack them you can feel the meat that will produce a "mushy" texture, this happens a lot to us, enough that our servers know what to say.

You can not really avoid it, i do know when we were getting "Ice glazed" tails they were a lot more prone to have this issue.
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post #5 of 6
1/2/08 at 3:57am
well, i know that freezing and re freezing can cause the texture to be as such. ice crystals that form from an ordinary freezer are larger and therefore puncture cell walls causing a mushy texture (same thing happens to fruit that is frozen and defrosted). ideally, the crustacean is flash frozen in order to have the smallest ice crystals as possible.

another reason can be that the lobster was dead with its head on for a significant amount of time. i know that shrimp with their heads attatched and frozen will produce a mushy texture because of an enzyme in the head that is released after death and decomposes the body. that's why our restaurant always gets their shrimp without their heads attatched.
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post #6 of 6
1/4/08 at 8:58am
If they are dead lobster then you would almost certanly get a few cases of food poisoning, thats why they should always be cooked alive. However a lobster can live for a long time out of water and i would suggest that the reason for the occasional mushy lobster is over cooking of a stale but sill alive lobster. Some times lobsters kept in tanks for a long period of time will go the same way this can be down to lack of food.
Steve masterchefinfrance.com
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