Until I lived in Maine, I never ate a whole, cooked lobster. It just looked like too much work (and I was probably embarrassed to admit that I didn't know how to go about taking they monster apart). But Maine has a lobster on its license plate so if you don't learn how to deal with lobster, you'll never become a "local." (I never reached that elevated status even though I lived there for two years, but that's another story for another book.) So I learned how to cook lobster and found that taking it apart is not such a hard thing after all and the results are delicious and worth all the trouble..
Most commercial lobsters are about one to one and a half pounds in weight and you need to buy them alive and keep them alive until you cook them. If you're buying them from a tank, insist on having ones that look active in the water. If they're from your local butcher, open the box he gives you to be sure they're alive before you pay for them. When you get them home, store them in a cool place - the bottom of your refrigerator is just fine - in a container that has holes in it. The lobsters need to "breath." And don't put them in water; they'll drown.
There are several methods for cooking lobsters. Julia Child likes to steam hers on a colander upside down in about 1 1/2 inches of boiling water. Weight down the cover to keep in the steam and as it starts to escape, lower the heat and set your timer. (See below.)
My friend, Dennis, says that his father always baked his but how you keep live lobsters in a baking dish is a mystery to me. Maybe he plunged a sharp knife through their head just before cooking, to kill them, but I don't think I could do that.
I always boil mine. Bring a full pot of water to a boil and add the lobsters, as many as will fit without crowding. Cover the pot and boil for about 3 minutes per pound. My friends in Maine say that a lobster is done when you can easily pull the feeler off the shell but I've found that this method often means an overcooked, and therefore tough, lobster. Julia says the lobster is ready when you can pull off one of the little legs and squeeze out the meat, like squeezing toothpaste from a tube. I find this method more reliable.
Eating lobsters, or picking out the meat from one, is not so hard. Start with the front legs and just break them apart at the joints. You may need a pick, something like a nut pick, to get out the meat. You can use a nut cracker to crack the claws. The meat there is probably the most succulent. When it comes to the tail, just take the lobster in two hands, one hand on the body and one hand on the tail, and break them apart by pushing them in the "wrong," or unnatural direction - pulling the tail up over the back. At this point, you may want to remove the eggs from a female - they're red - and the tomally, which is green. Some people find these a delicacy but not me. There's enough other good stuff for me to give these up.
Break the little flippers off the end of the tail and, if the lobster had been properly cooked, the meat from the tail can be removed in one piece. Use your thumb to push on the meat from the flipper end of the tail toward the body end. If the meat doesn't want to come out, you may have to cut the underside of the tail with a sharp knife to get to the tail meat.
Most people discard the little legs but these contain very sweet meat. As described earlier, just pull them off the body and then squeeze the meat from the end of the leg toward the body end, like squeezing toothpaste. Once you get the hang of it, it's easy.
Lobster is expensive so I don't have it very often but when I do, I like to eat it outside, dipped in butter, with the butter running down my arms. Maybe I got to be a "Mainer" after all!
A Tip: Gertrude's Restaurant at the BMA serves lobster every Thursday during the month of August. They only buy so many lobsters so a reservation, and the fact that you're going to have lobster, are essential. Enjoy!
Most commercial lobsters are about one to one and a half pounds in weight and you need to buy them alive and keep them alive until you cook them. If you're buying them from a tank, insist on having ones that look active in the water. If they're from your local butcher, open the box he gives you to be sure they're alive before you pay for them. When you get them home, store them in a cool place - the bottom of your refrigerator is just fine - in a container that has holes in it. The lobsters need to "breath." And don't put them in water; they'll drown.
There are several methods for cooking lobsters. Julia Child likes to steam hers on a colander upside down in about 1 1/2 inches of boiling water. Weight down the cover to keep in the steam and as it starts to escape, lower the heat and set your timer. (See below.)
My friend, Dennis, says that his father always baked his but how you keep live lobsters in a baking dish is a mystery to me. Maybe he plunged a sharp knife through their head just before cooking, to kill them, but I don't think I could do that.
I always boil mine. Bring a full pot of water to a boil and add the lobsters, as many as will fit without crowding. Cover the pot and boil for about 3 minutes per pound. My friends in Maine say that a lobster is done when you can easily pull the feeler off the shell but I've found that this method often means an overcooked, and therefore tough, lobster. Julia says the lobster is ready when you can pull off one of the little legs and squeeze out the meat, like squeezing toothpaste from a tube. I find this method more reliable.
Eating lobsters, or picking out the meat from one, is not so hard. Start with the front legs and just break them apart at the joints. You may need a pick, something like a nut pick, to get out the meat. You can use a nut cracker to crack the claws. The meat there is probably the most succulent. When it comes to the tail, just take the lobster in two hands, one hand on the body and one hand on the tail, and break them apart by pushing them in the "wrong," or unnatural direction - pulling the tail up over the back. At this point, you may want to remove the eggs from a female - they're red - and the tomally, which is green. Some people find these a delicacy but not me. There's enough other good stuff for me to give these up.
Break the little flippers off the end of the tail and, if the lobster had been properly cooked, the meat from the tail can be removed in one piece. Use your thumb to push on the meat from the flipper end of the tail toward the body end. If the meat doesn't want to come out, you may have to cut the underside of the tail with a sharp knife to get to the tail meat.
Most people discard the little legs but these contain very sweet meat. As described earlier, just pull them off the body and then squeeze the meat from the end of the leg toward the body end, like squeezing toothpaste. Once you get the hang of it, it's easy.
Lobster is expensive so I don't have it very often but when I do, I like to eat it outside, dipped in butter, with the butter running down my arms. Maybe I got to be a "Mainer" after all!
A Tip: Gertrude's Restaurant at the BMA serves lobster every Thursday during the month of August. They only buy so many lobsters so a reservation, and the fact that you're going to have lobster, are essential. Enjoy!
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