Sometimes when passing the shellfish counter you may admire the suave way other folk¹ are asking the fishmonger for these incredible looking delicacies. Are you tempted to buy - or like many British people - unsure of what to ask for and of what to do with these curiosities once you have taken them home? Lobsters are quite expensive to buy in Britain and thought of as a luxury, certainly not the sort of food to buy on a whim without knowing exactly what to do with them.

Lobsters - What Are They?

A lobster is basically just a very, very large shrimp. Shrimps, prawns, crayfish and lobsters all belong to the same group of animals called crustaceans. They are unlike vertebrates (mammals, fish, reptiles and birds and amphibians) because they do not have a backbone - they are 'invertebrates'. Also, they do not have a skeleton like the higher orders of animals - they keep their body shape by having a hard external shell - the exoskeleton. This means that a little understanding is needed to find out where the good bits to eat are.

Choosing and Buying your Lobster

Firstly we have to buy the lobster. Raw, (uncooked) lobsters are offered for sale in fishmongers. Expect them to be alive, and their claws restrained by heavy duty elastic bands. They will not be the lobster-red colour that you might expect. This is because the colour of a crustacean's blood is different to that of vertebrates. Instead of haemoglobin they use haemocyanin to absorb oxygen, and this is blue. The lobster will turn red once it has been thoroughly cooked.

A lobster weighing between one and a half and two pounds should feed two persons. Generally in British supermarkets the lobsters are all about this average size.

Lobsters are caught in many places of the world, and often exported. You may very well find ready cooked and frozen lobsters for sale. These will be scarlet in colour and should be stored in exactly the same way as frozen shell-on prawns. They have a very short shelf-life once thawed. It may also be possible to buy raw, frozen lobsters.

What Next?

Once you have taken your fresh lobsters home you should waste no time in cooking them. Don't buy them ahead of time - they should be cooked on the day of purchase. Should you want them for a special meal (such as Christmas or New Year) when it is impossible to buy them on the day itself, then plan your menu so that the lobster is cooked and served cold or in a recipe such as lobster bisque.

One of the major reasons that people shy away from cooking lobsters is that they are usually cooked from the live state. This is not necessary, but because you should buy your lobsters whilst they are still alive² you will have to despatch your lobster in a humane manner before cooking them. The recommended way to do this is to place them in the deep freeze for a short period of time³, this will send them into hibernation - a sort of coma - and is considered to be the easiest way to deal with this situation. You are going to be just chilling, not actually freezing the lobsters, this may affect the cooking times. If they still show any sign of movement when you remove them, put them back into the cold for another few minutes.

Cooking Methods

Boiling

Obtain a very large saucepan, preferably a stock pot with a tight fitting lid. Bring plenty of water to the boil, both in the pot and some additional water in a kettle. Once the water is at a full rolling boil, add salt, the juice from a lemon, and a bay leaf. Next add the lobsters - head first so as to quicken the moment of death. Make sure the lobsters are completely covered. Use additional boiling water from the kettle if needed. Replace the lid and boil for 15 minutes. You should leave the bands around the claws whilst cooking.

Steaming

Using the same size of large saucepan or stockpot as before with either a trivet at the bottom or a steaming basket - fill with a couple of inches of salted water and bring to the boil. The lobsters in this case should not be touching the boiling water. It is absolutely necessary to have a very tight-fitting lid to steam lobsters, and they should be cooked for 18 minutes.

Grilling⁴

You may definitely want to stun the lobster by placing it in the deep freeze for a while before tackling this method. Alternatively make sure you have a first aid kit and know where it is!
Remove the lobster's two front claws. Remove the restraining bands and crack the claws' shell open with either a pair of nutcrackers, or the back of a heavy knife.

Then, using a sharp, heavy knife - insert the point into the lobster behind its head⁵, then bring it sharply down to the cutting board, and then continue the movement forward and down until the head part is cut in two. Turn the lobster around and repeat the cutting through the body and the tail section. Remove the green inner parts, the digestive organs and the liver. Any reddish parts seen can be left, as they will be the edible roe (if the lobster had been female) The white parts in the body cavity are the meat.

Place the lobster halves and claws under a very hot grill or over a hot barbecue. Turn after three or four minutes, using melted butter to baste the flesh. The halves of the lobster shell make a very good container for barbecuing the lobster and can be filled with garlic and herb butter.

How to Tackle a Cooked Lobster

Once you have successfully managed to cook them you are faced with the problem of getting them open. Using nutcrackers (or special shellfish crackers if you have them) crack open the claws and pull out any white meat - this is the specially delicious part of the animal. If the lobster has been boiled or steamed you should pull off all the small legs from under the body, and the tail flaps from the end. Then, using a sharp knife, insert it under the carapace ( the back shell of the lobster) and lift the shell away from the meat. You will find that you can pull the meat from inside the tail, by pushing your finger into the shell from the end where you have removed the flaps. Any greenish coloured contents should be discarded, as above. The red roe, if found, is regarded as a delicacy by some.

A further guide to eating lobster can be found here.

Enjoy your fresh lobster served with melted butter, a salad and some crusty bread. A white wine such as Riesling or a Chablis would make a good accompaniment.

Further Recipes