Lobster 101

[Fat Guy]

John, by pre-kill you mean sticking a knife in behind the head?

[Jinmyo]

I've tried Keller's method of butter poaching. Amazing texture and flavour.

Could I get more info on this procedure? Are you actually melting, I would assume, several pounds of butter and simmering the lobster in that?

I'm sure it tastes good, but the idea of removing the meat from the butter saturated shell sounds dangerous to me.

Rachel, based on Keller, what I do is: The lobster is boiled in court boullion first until the flesh just begins to set. Then the meat is carefully removed from claws and tail. I return the shells and odd bits back to the pot along with some herbs. The meat is then gently poached in clarified butter. I serve it with some of the butter with fresh herbs and a bit of lemon and retain the rest of the now delicious lobster-flavoured butter for other uses. Such as drizzled on a fresh baguette.

[Fat Guy]

Did I read somewhere that in New Zealand it's a law that you have to chill the lobster before killing it? Or did I just dream that?

[Jinmyo]

Steve, you have the strangest dreams.

[Fat Guy]

I'd tell you more but you'd slap me.

[Fat Guy]

http://202.78.129.207/mafnet/press/archive...0/140200lob.htm

[Jinmyo]

Who is it (some celeb chef) that gets them drunk first and slowly heats the wine?

[Jinmyo]

By the way, lobsters are still bugs as far as I'm concerned. The Keller truc is what makes them worthwhile. Well, more than worthwhile.

[ngatti]

I prefer to either pre-kill a lobster or cook it humanely. There are two alternatives recommended by the RSPCA:

(1) Put it in the freezer for two hours, where it gradually goes unconscious. It can then be skewered or split without a struggle.

(2) If boiling or steaming, start with cold water and bring it gradually to a boil. The lobster passes out as it gets warm.

There are those who argue that a lobster feels no pain and that the frantic scratching in the pot is merely a reflex action. They tend to include those for whom any slow preparation or cooking method would be an added expense or an inconvenience.

John could you post more on the cold to boiling water method. I've been doing lobsters for a bout 30 years now. My experiences with your method seem quite contrary to your post.

Three times a year for the last 9 years i must cook 120-200 3 pound lobsters. I ALWAYS dispatch the lobsters that I set aside for broiling (50-100). This is done by placing a small boning knife behind the first break in the carapace behind the head. Insert swiftly and deftly draw across and through. This severs the spinal cord effectively guiouttinning the lobster. The lobster at this point arches and stretches out. There is some residual motion but the beast usually dies rather quickly.

My experience with the cold to boiling water method has to do with the seemingly panicked way the lobsters attempt to escape the pot. The most disturbing aspect that I've found to this method is the screams. The bloodcurdling noise that the lobsters emit make my skin crawl. I've only had to experience it once or twice to know that I never wanted to hear those sounds again. It was NOT steam escaping the shells. The beasts are desperately trying to jump out of the pot, some of them successfully. That coupled with the noise lead me to the 'plunge them into boiling liquid' method. Here you want to be careful not to put to many cold lobsters into the boiling water. This cools the liquid to the point that the lobsters aren't shocked and killed instantly. You also want to use ample liquid for the same reasons.

A. J. McClane recommends plunging head first into rapidly boiling liquid. M.F.K. Fisher recommends dispatching the lobster first using the above method.

Perhaps I misunderstand. Perhaps I'm bringing the pot to a boil too quickly. How gradual is your technique. I'm open to trying it.

Nick

[Fat Guy]

So, Tommy, did you cook the lobster? Or are you still trying to figure out the butter thing?

[mikeczyz]

Can anybody tell me how to identify a female lobster vs. a male one? a fishmonger once told me something about little feelers at the front end of the tail, but i can't remember exactly. thanks

mike

[southern girl]

The little legs closest to the body are the key...the females are hairy and the males are hairfree... That should invite some interesting comments

[tommy]

So, Tommy, did you cook the lobster? Or are you still trying to figure out the butter thing?

i love a hairy lobster.

cooked, headfirst, for about 14 minutes (to satisfy the skeptical in the dinner party). it was right on. i will be doing this more often, as it's much cheaper than going out, and you can certainly have a better experience than at your typical northern NJ spanish joint.

thanks to all for the suggestions.

[John Whiting]

My post was slightly misleading. There are two methods recommended by the RSPCA but I follow the first; i.e. placing it in the freezer until it doesn't respond to handling (I check every half-hour or so) and then bisecting it lengthwise and grilling it with a generous amount of butter. The bisecting can be accomplished without the freezing, but I'm not a good sport -- I don't like to give the critter a fighting chance.

When I buy a lobster already cooked -- and in Britain I very infrequently buy a lobster at all -- I don't enquire as to how it was cooked. That way lies madness. But if I'm doing the job myself I prefer it grilled and I prefer a method that insures I don't do a botch job.

Growing up on Cape Cod, I ate lobsters with the carefree abandon that kids today eat Big Macs. But today my wife and I generally prefer crabs, particularly spider crabs. The meat is more complexly tasty; and, since, they require a certain amount of work to disect and extract the meat, they are a hellofa lot cheaper.

[bushey]

I was told that female lobsters have larger tails in proportion to their bodies than males. Great......pear shaped lobsters!

The general rule I use for steaming lobsters (1 - 1.5 lbs) is to check after about 10 minutes to see if they're bright red, and then turn off the heat and let them sit a little longer. If the claws are really big, though, I'll leave the heat on and steam another 5-6 minutes or so.

Another option, of course, is to purchase them shortly before eating at a fish store or supermarket that steams them in that big autoclave thing for you and then there's no hassle, no sticky pot to wash.

[shrektime]

The freezer thing, though we called it stunning, worked great before throwing them into a steamer.

In a large sink, very very large bowl, or small bathtub, put a lot of ice and some water. The lobsters/crabs become stunned and are easier to work with. At least the feeling of causing a slow death is removed.

[tommy]

do they really "scream." i've heard conflicting stories on this.

[CooksQuest]

General rule is 10 minutes for first pound plus 3 minutes for each additional.

I prefer steaming because then you don't have all of that water on your plate when you eat 'em.

Fat Guy -- Does that "general rule" apply for steaming as well, or is it longer for steaming? The proprietor at the restaurant Noonan's (an unbelievably good no-frills lobster joint near Kennebunkport, Maine) steams the 1 1/2 pound lobsters for 20 minutes in heavily salted water.

Comes out good enough to make me want to drive 6 hours to get there this weekend...

You would think steaming would be less time though, since steam is slightly hotter than boiling water.

---Gary

[Fat Guy]

Yes you steam for longer than you boil, because even though the steam is hot the physical properties of water transfer heat more efficiently and consistently than steam mixed with air at regular atmospheric pressure and anyway without additional pressure the steam isn't much hotter than the water (or at least I think that's right). I'm sure some science type can tell us the deal. Now if you start using a pressure cooker or one of those Japanese blast-chamber things, you get faster results when steaming. In any event 20 minutes sounds like a crazy-long time; there must be something different about the process this place is using, like maybe they're pulling the lid off a lot to add and remove other lobsters from the steamer?

[CooksQuest]

In any event 20 minutes sounds like a crazy-long time; there must be something different about the process this place is using, like maybe they're pulling the lid off a lot to add and remove other lobsters from the steamer?

Thanks. Yeah, maybe the size of the pot and number of lobsters adds some minutes too...

[tommy]

is someone going to tell me if they scream? jeesh.

[Jinmyo]

tommy, no. There is a high pitched squeal that comes from air being pressed out through the joints of the shell.

[Basildog]

Never heard one scream yet.....only a few say" Excuse me, this jacuzzi is a little warm"

[tommy]

how fast does this happen? can the pressure really build up that quickly?

[Jinmyo]

Happens, when and if it does, after a few minutes.

Eat the squeamish.