RIP Lobsters ... newest invention ...

[Gifted Gourmet]

The product

Operation: the individual shellfish is placed on a sprung lower steel plate resting in a shallow bath of brine (sea-water concentration) and the lid closed. The Operator simply presses a button. The Unit is pre-set to deliver the required duration of electric current to produce instant anaesthesia and kill within 5 seconds in the case of Lobsters and Crayfish and within 10 seconds in Crabs.

Fast, clean & efficient

Reduces stress & improves meat quality in terms of texture & flavour

Can be used by unskilled staff

Conforms to Standards of Humane killing & acceptable to the general public

thus ending the dilemma over whether one should throw a lobster into boiling water ... and the stress?

So? What have you to say about this device?

article on lobster killing by eGullet's Steven Shaw

hysterical article from the Julie/Julia Project

[Jason Perlow]

So its an electric chair, for lobsters?

[Gifted Gourmet]

Kinda ... but they are guilty of nothing less than tasting delicious ...

[jsolomon]

And being closely related to roaches?

I can see it now, scene International Criminal Court, The Hague, Netherlands.

PETA Practitioner: Your honor, this innocent lobster is guilty of nothing, and look at how it is killed. This is certainly a war crime.

Anthony Bourdain: Pass the salt.

Alton Brown: That electric chair is a unitasker. Death to the electric chair!

Thomas Edison: I certainly hope that chair uses alternating current. It is much more deadly than direct current.

Sandra Lee: I think this can be used on Krab!

Rachel Ray: I wish this thing came in a perkier color, like red. You know, how lobsters' shells look when they're cooked? *giggle*

Me: Give me the boiling water. I'm tired of this nonsense.

Edit: stoopid pre-caffeinated spelling

Edited May 9, 2006 by jsolomon (log)

[Smithy]

[foodie52]

And you don't have to watch them die. All the flavor and none of the guilt. Kids can do it, too!

[petite tête de chou]

Nah. Nothing beats a sharp knife into their brain.

[Gigi4808]

Jsolomon, you owe me a new monitar! I just don't think I will ever get the coke you made me spew off of this one!.

I am a bit heartless so I can''t see myself using this.

If I am feeling humane they get the knife... if not well.... lobsters liek Spa's don't they?

[Lady T]

Tell me this: does this newfangled electric-chair method cause the lobster to retain less water than the throw-'em-into-boiling-salted-water method? I'd very much enjoy not having to drain the critters before dismantling them, sitting down with the melted butter and cut-up lemon, and having supper.

Also: is this device foolproof? I am seriously not interested in reaching into the water to retrieve the dear cooked beast and getting electrocuted myself.

Fact check: does this item do nothing but kill the creature, with cooking to follow? Or can it be set to cook, following the mercy killing?

[Grub]

...

Sandra Lee: I think this can be used on Krab!

Rachel Ray: I wish this thing came in a perkier color, like red.  You know, how lobsters' shells look when they're cooked? *giggle*

...

←

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

[JohnL]

I thought that most states have declared electrocution

inhumane!

But then lobsters aren't human.

[Gifted Gourmet]

I thought that most states have declared electrocution

inhumane!

←

Assuming that lethal injection is also none too utilitarian for those who cook large volumes of these hapless creatures ... what would one inject them with anyway? Prozac?

[jgm]

If you get a chance to see "Rosemary - Castle Cook", episode 4 today on the Discovery Home Channel, she covers this subject with her students. My favorite part is where she admonishes them that "you MUST be humane" and then deftly, quickly rips the head off a langoustine.

Actually, I like her philosophy; just because we are eating these animals, doesn't mean we get to torture them. Death should be as quick as possible. Her method, or a knife-to-the-brain method, seems a lot more compassionate than electrocution, which would surely take a few seconds.

If you haven't seen this episode, it's definitely worth a look. She's one of my favorite TV chefs, anyway, but this episode really cemented my good opinion of her!

[JohnL]

I thought that most states have declared electrocution

inhumane!

←

Assuming that lethal injection is also none too utilitarian for those who cook large volumes of these hapless creatures ... what would one inject them with anyway? Prozac?

←

How about melted butter!?

[Dukeofyork]

Wasn't there a study showing that lobsters (etc. crustaceans) don't actually feel pain at all? In which case, this is more about selling something to people who have their own issues with the current methods...

[budrichard]

Dead lobsters tell no tales! A 'Tempest in a Teapot'.

We as a society have way too much free time on our hands. If you were really hungry, you would rip the head off the body, break the tail into pieces and eat and not worry about whether a lobster can feel pain.

Me I've been killing lobsters for at least 50 years. If cooking them by steaming or boiling, then they go right in the pot.

If I want to disjoint them , then i 'pith' them and disjoint. I'm not sure that pithing them does any good at all? -Dick

[jsolomon]

Her method, or a knife-to-the-brain method, seems a lot more compassionate than electrocution, which would surely take a few seconds.

←

It's very generous to call a lobster's central ganglion a brain. Arthropods nervous systems, as a general rule, are much more democratic than vertebrates so destroying the central ganglion renders them immobile, not dead, if I recall correctly.

It is fair to say that a plunge into a sufficient amount of boiling water destroys their nervous tissue really quickly, which does kill them.

But, remember, Mother Nature ain't nice. We generally kill our food because it is much easier to chew when it's not trying to defend itself. We have really anthropomorphosed our food supply into an amazingly heady construct of compassion, etc.

When are we going to have stunners for clams? I see a new market.

[fiftydollars]

But isn't the cruelty part of the fun?

[beandork]

I hear lobster tastes better if you beat it with some rubber hosing first

[Grub]

I hear lobster tastes better if you beat it with some rubber hosing first

←

"Momma said they's my magic shoes. Mama said they would take me anywhere. 'Course Mama used to beat me with a rubber hose and call me a retard.'

-- Monty ("Waiting...") -- hey, food related movie...

[Milagai]

Her method, or a knife-to-the-brain method, seems a lot more compassionate than electrocution, which would surely take a few seconds.

←

But, remember, Mother Nature ain't nice. We generally kill our food because it is much easier to chew when it's not trying to defend itself. We have really anthropomorphosed our food supply into an amazingly heady construct of compassion, etc.

←

Cooking has little to do with Ma Nature anyway.

Why not eat your food raw (though dead)?

And before you say "ceviche" or "sashimi" to me,

why combine various ingredients, flavorings, etc etc?

Eat like evolutionary ancestors, and live like them also

(catch your daily mammoth, die young).

And what's wrong with anthropomorphizing,

empathizing, and with compassion anyway?

There's PLENTY to feast on in the world without

eating things you feel sorry for.

No need to feel sorry about feeling sorry.

Some of these parallel threads are really interesting :

- some posters need a whole EG cheering squad before

they can bring themselves to cook rabbit,

and end up having to think of it as something else

before they can process it (why bother - just eat

the "something else" already, and donate the

bunny carcass to some carrion-eating wildlife).

- others here wonder whether a creature that's

struggling and trying to defend itself can actually feel

pain (if you care, why eat it? if you eat it, face the

fact that you are going to enjoy it whether the critter

died in agony or didn't feel a thing).

- past threads where people who will happily chow lobster

or crab won't eat spiders or lizards or snakes;

will eat cows or pigs but not dogs or horses (at least most

of these people openly acknowledge their double standards).

- amazing numbers of people who will proudly eat all of the above

but turn pale when confronted with tofu, okra, etc.

(what was that thread where the OP disliked vegetables

so wanted a meat-based way to lose weight?)

Somehow it's good to broaden your mind

to enjoy bull's testicles or whatever,

but wierd to savor tofu?

Milagai

[Mallet]

I hear lobster tastes better if you beat it with some rubber hosing first

←

nah, phone books don't bruise. Interesting thing, this electric stunner. The website says it takes a fraction of a second to "stun" the lobster, but about 5 seconds to kill it (and I think about 10 s for crab). How would this compare to other methods of dispatching. I think both boiling water and the knife technique operate on a similar timescale, am I wrong?

[Elrushbo]

If it makes lobster taste better, then great.