Cooking Live Lobster - Page 2

 

This is how I was taught to cook crab, the reason being that in boiling water crabs will shed thier legs and allow the water into the body cavity and make the meat soggy.

 

For lobster I put them into the freezer for half an hour, it does not affect freshness but it does make them more docile and less stressed, you are correct about the adrenalin causing tough meat but as soon as they hit the boiling water they die in an instant.

I didn't invent the word, but every place I have worked here and I have been in business 50 years thats what guys in back and front they called them. Again in restaurant lingo outside I have heard as you say Florida Lobster.

 

You did not indicate the kind of lobster or its size. But I assume you meant a "chicken" lobster that is around 1 to 1/2 lbs. That is what you find in most stores today. You will need two lobsters, one for you and one for your girlfriend.

1. Get a pot large enough to hold both lobsters. If you do not own such a pot, don't try to cook lobster. Go to a Kitchen shop and ask for a pot big enough to cook 2 lobsters. You can use the pot to cook crab, shrimp, corn on the cob, soup, gumbo, etc. Don't buy a cheap thin aluminum pot. Buy something thick and heavy that you can hand down to your children and grandchildren.

2. Fill it 75% full with good clean water. Use bottled water if your tap water has chlorine. Put pot on high heat to boil the water.

3. Smash 3 large garlic cloves and thrown them into the water skin and all.

4. Chop the top section with leaves of a bunch of celery and throw it into the water with the garlic. The top portion is the stalks after the waist.

5. Add 3 TBs of salt and 3 Tbsof sugar to pot.

6. Cut a fresh lemon in half and throw it into the pot. 

6. Once the water with all the ingredients come to boil, drop lobsters into water and set timer for 12 min. Cook for 12 min.

7. If eating right away, set table with clarified butter and dig in. 

8. If you wat to eat them later that day or the next day, while the lobsters are cooking, fill a sink with cold water and ice cubes. When the timer goes off, take lobsters out of pot, and throw into sink until they are cold.

9. Once cold, take meat out of shell. Use for salads or sautéed in butter with herbs over pasta.  

Chef Bob refdrbob@gmail.com 

Hello,

 

I have been cooking for years but haven't cooked lobsters.Actually i get frightened with the thought of cooking them alive.

Yes, ChefEd.. "bugs" would be pretty rough terminology, even here in FL as it conjures up "other" critters we get! When I spent my summers on Cape Cod, we always cooked those Maine guys in boiling water and they were live going it but what I've always done to simplify the thrashing was to dip the lobster, head first, into the boiling caldron for just a second or two. That hot water sort of kills them pretty quick and then I let the rest of the lobster fall into the pot.. lobster #2...same treatment. However, I must admit, though I've never done it, the bringing of the water to a boil with the lobsters in it makes very good sense as they really don't know they're getting hot...yet! No matter what... give me some butter and I'll show you places to find meat in a lobster that you didn't know existed!! Funny story, which I'll make short... when I was 9 my father took us to a place in Maine where they served boiled lobsters on beer trays and the first was $3.00 (long time ago) and they went down $0.25 with each one you ate. I was working on a $0.75 lobster and the owner asked my father when "this kid" was going to quit?? I was a skinny little sh.. but I could eat lobster!!! Too young to drink beer to fill you up!

If you have not cooked your lobster yet, might I suggest what I call the sleepy way?  Use a large pot (bigger the better), and put about 4 inches of cold water in the bottom, add the lobster (as we like to call them thanks to Homer Simpson...pinchies) and turn the heat up to high, cover and bring to a boil for just a few minutes, then remove from the heat.  I was told by a lobster guy in Nova Scotia, that the low rise in heat does two things:

1...puts pinchie to sleep before he dies...much kinder

2...keeps the meat more tender especially in the tail!

Try it out, you will find the meat to be sweet and tender, and you wont feel so bad about tossing a live pinchie into boiling water!