It's summertime, which means lobster prices have lowered and many people are enjoying eating these delectable crustaceans at clambakes and other al fresco situations. I just love sultry summer evenings, sitting on the back porch and digging into some freshly steamed lobster accompanied by a chilled pinot grigio, laughing with good friends. If this sounds good to you but you find the idea of eating a whole, uncracked lobster a bit intimidating, I hope the following guide will help to give you some confidence.
What You Need
Ingredients
Whole cooked lobster(s) that have been dunked in an ice bath to stop the cooking process and make them easier to handle
Small bowls of melted butter
Optional: garlic aioli
Equipment
Seafood scissors, like these
A bowl for empty shells
Plenty of napkins - this gets messy!
Sturdy seafood/nut crackers - like these
Thin metal seafood picks, like these
Instructions
1. Remove the claws by holding the lobster body in one hand and twisting the claws off the body with your other hand.
2. Separate the tail from the body by twisting and pulling them apart with your hands.
3. Don't throw out the body/head section! It has a lot of meat in it. First, pull the top shell away from the body and discard. Look inside the cavity. The green stuff is tomalley, and is edible. It's basically the lobster liver. Remove it. If your lobster is a female, you'll see black or red roe in the body cavity. It's lobster caviar and is good. If it's black, it's uncooked, so don't eat it this way. Steam it for a few minutes until it turns red, and then it's edible.
4. Pull the legs and the pale-colored spongy gills away from the body. Suck the meat and juices out of the legs.
5. Back to the body cavity: pick out the thin papery shells separating the meat, and you'll end up with about half a cup to 3/4 a cup of lobster rib meat.
6. Go back to the claws. Separate the claws at the joints to get 4 pieces. Use the crackers or scissors to remove the shell and get to the meat. I prefer the scissors as sometimes the crackers crunch the claws up into little bits that get in the meat, and I like having one big, unbroken piece of claw meat.
7. Now, work on the tail piece. First, pick off the tail flaps and suck the juices and meat out of the holes.
8. Next, extract the tail meat out of the shell in one piece. Stick your finger in the base of the tail at the smallest opening where the tail flaps were and push the tail meat out. It will look like a giant shrimp. If your lobster is a female, you'll find roe at the top ridge of the tail meat. It's delicious. However, if it's black, it's undercooked and inedible. Steam it for a minute or two to get it red, and then eat.
Additional Notes:
I prefer to do this outside, as shells and lobster juices drip and fly around. If you eat outdoors, you don't have to mop and wipe down the kitchen. But if you have to eat inside, don't eat over carpet if you can avoid it - or set a tarp down for easy cleanup.
Try to get enough tools so each diner has their own set of seafood scissors, crackers, and/or picks.
Related:
How To: Cook And Clean Dungeness Crab
How To: Clean Whole Fresh Squid
Recipe: Lobster Rolls (and Lobster Lessons)
How to Kill a Lobster (Humanely)
Recipe: Shellfish Stock
Food Science: Why Do Crustaceans Turn Reddish-Orange When Cooked?
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I steamed a lobster once, and there seemed to be a large amount of water in the lobster. This didn't happen when I had it at a restaurant. Did I do something wrong? Is there a way to avoid this?
I wasn't aware that tomalley was edible, but the real question is: is it tasty? Tasty enough to distract me from dunking lobster meat in butter? Tall order
Great directions by the way -- as a lifelong Midwesterner, this is a skill I lack. And not only have they made me hungry, but now my inner monologue is being voiced by Dr. Zoidberg
cpa1, I drain steamed lobsters to avoid a swamp of water on the plate. To do this, you cut the very tiniest tip off each claw and (holding the lobster in tongs or in a folded kitchen towel) hold it head-side down until no water streams out of the holes.
You can also use a steaming rack to prevent the lobster from getting all that cooking water inside to begin with.
@cpa1: was it a hard or soft shell lobster? From winter to summer lobster shells are hard and have more meat; from summer to winter, lobsters molt, and are soft-shelled. When they're soft-shelled, they get more waterlogged due to the meat filling with water & swelling.
If this happens, after cooking, cut the tip of each claw, hold the lobster up, and let the liquid drain out before serving.
When buying lobster, squeeze their bodies to feel for shell hardness.
Dear cpa1,
I am a native of Maine... and I have moved away since, and miss this time of year in Maine when we used to eat lobsters about once a week as a family~ I can tell you how we cook lobster after we buy it from the Cutler lobstermen. For a few lobsters, have about 2 1/2 inches of water boiling in the pot, and then put the lobsters in for 13 1/2 minutes. It is best to remove the rubber bands, so your lobsters don't taste like rubber. : )
@akay - I find the tomalley totally tasty. But some cannot get over the colour and texture. I've also been told that the tomalley holds too many toxins now to eat :(
*sigh* it's been years since I've had lobster....
Actually, the FDA advises against eating tomalley:
http://www.foodpoisonjournal.com/2008/07/articles/food-poisoning-watch/do-not-eat-tomalley-in-maine-lobsters-warns-fda/
@akay -- The tomalley is super delicious! It was always the treat that everyone wanted in the crabs or lobsters when I was growing up.
And in a way, loving tomalley prepared me to absolutely love sea urchin. There's some sort of flavor and texture similarity there.
Thanks for all of the advice! I am heading to Cape Cod in a couple of weeks and need to brush up on my lobster cooking skills.
I eat lobster at least five times a year, and I've only found roe once. Everyone at the table was sufficiently surprised and weirded out, so needless to say I didn't eat it. I find it hard to believe that all female lobsters harbor roe...maybe just the ones getting ready to spawn?
What great suggestions! I am from the east coast of Canada and come from a family of fisherman on my mother's side. We eat the tomalley as well! I would also suggest (and this is a familial pet peeve) taking the rubber bands off the lobsters before cooking them! Otherwise the meat can take on a bit of a rubbery taste. We also find that using a dishcloth to pull the claws and bodies apart helps... especially if the lobster is hot. Delicious!
I didn't realize tomalley was now a no-no. Thanks for letting me know.
This looks too, too gross.
No mention of how to get at the tasty leg meat. Of course, I'm sure I look a little bit starved and crazy when I do this, but I always snap off the legs and either squeeze them from one end to the other (kinda like a tube of toothpaste) if they're soft, or use something like a French rolling pin to roll from one end to the other if they're harder. The meat just pops right out, and the reward is well worth the effort.
Now if only we could get good Maine lobster out here on the west coast...