Cooking lobster. Tastiest way? Most humane way? Boil? Steam?

oldscoil

Hi Folks.

I managed to get the BBQ out of the shed yesterday (Sunday 7th)
Hope a few you managed to as well….

Anyway, it got me thinking about Paddy’s day and what to have if the weather is good…

I was thinkin’ maybe a seafood Barbie, then I was thinkin’ about maybe cooking lobsters.

I know there are several ways to cook them, but which is the most humane way…:o

…and also which is the tastiest way? :P

Has anyone good first hand experience of cooking lobsters?

Also would anyone know the best place in North Dublin (Howth ideally) to buy lobster?

Thanks in advance Folks.

Alun

I remember reading a suggestion somewhere to pop them in the freezer for a 5-10 mins before boiling them, not enough to actually freeze them, but just enough to numb them. To be honest I wouldn't bother, it'll be a pretty quick death either way.

Pal

Cheaper and easier to use frozen lobster.

I find the tastiest is to remove meat and cook it thermidor style.

That's cream, onion, stock, mustard, white wine and pepper.

Return to shell, top it with grated cheese and grill.


Best place to buy is Lidl or Aldi but out of season now.

dh0661

Pal wrote: »

frozen lobster.

---

but out of season now.

Can frozen lobster be out of season ?

Sigma Force

They do say freezing lobster first is the most humane, I think in the UK they have to freeze first (correct me if I'm wrong though).

unkel

oldscoil wrote: »

Also would anyone know the best place in North Dublin (Howth ideally) to buy lobster?

Are you kiddin' us? You live in Howth? You never noticed Howth harbour has several fish retailers selling live lobster?

Sparks

The most humane is -- according to all the experts -- to take the biggest knife you have, put the point behind the head, then cut straight down, cutting the brain (well, the main nerve center) in half.

As to how humane that is... well, you're talking about a marine cockroach here. Granted, they're interesting creatures (in that they're immortal), but we're not talking about something that writes poetry here And dropping them into live steam or boiling water will do the job in a very few seconds anyway (less than seven seconds for steam if I remember right, less than that for boiling water).

Pal

dh0661 wrote: »

Can frozen lobster be out of season ?

It is a seasonal product in these stores.
Normally on sale from October to January.

You can of course buy lobster all year round elsewhere.

oldscoil

unkel wrote: »

Are you kiddin' us? You live in Howth? You never noticed Howth harbour has several fish retailers selling live lobster?

Hi Unkel,

Thanks for your post.

I live near Howth.....and yes I've seen many retailers selling lobster.
Hence my question, does anyone know a good place to get them.

Much like theres loads of pubs in Howth, but where do I get a good Guinness.

I was looking for the best retailer for the product, I'm sure each shop has their speciality produce. Nicky's Plaice is amazing for oysters and scallops (and most fish) but do they do the best lobster etc etc.

BTW, I don't mean to be smart here :P

silvine

They're immortal?! Holy crap.

Magic Monkey

Nuke them from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

One "interesting" way to cook them is by filling a large pot with enough white wine to cover your lobsters, put them in, and let them drink themselves to their death. Then BBQ with some salt, and serve with some mayonnaise and a wedge of lemon.

Sparks

silvine wrote: »

They're immortal?! Holy crap.

Yeah, it turns out we have a few species like that, but lobsters are about the most common. They're not immortal in that they cannot be killed (obviously, otherwise it'd be an interesting meal), just in that they don't actually suffer from senescence (old age). They just keep getting older and larger and stronger indefinitely. The only thing that kept them in check really was predation and the fact that they seem to enjoy tearing strips off each other. But back when lobster was poor man's food, you were looking at lobsters as long as your leg being caught, and they would have been over a century old by that point.

So next time you're worried about cooking one, just remember that when you're sixty, that little git won't need to pee eight times a night or have a dodgy hip

Mellor

silvine wrote: »

They're immortal?! Holy crap.

Sparks wrote: »

Yeah, it turns out we have a few species like that, but lobsters are about the most common. They're not immortal in that they cannot be killed (obviously, otherwise it'd be an interesting meal), just in that they don't actually suffer from senescence (old age). They just keep getting older and larger and stronger indefinitely. The only thing that kept them in check really was predation and the fact that they seem to enjoy tearing strips off each other.

I think your bending the truth there Sparks.
It's true that they don't suffer from old age, and they would keep regenerating cells. But calling this living forever is nonsense. They still suffer from illness and disease and die off that way, as well as the fighting you mentioned.

although, I'd love to see a record range 45-50kg lobster, yum

Pal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negligible_senescence

They are not immortal.

the beer revolu

http://www.helpwithcooking.com/seafood-shellfish/how-to-cook-lobster.html

Everything you might want to know about cooking lobster above.

unkel

The largest lobster ever found was over 20KG in weight and 120cm long :eek:

And it was about 100 years old...

duploelabs

Also Lobsters have no brain as such, more like several nerve nodes the main one which you sever when you do the knife job according to this chap http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_McGee

Worztron

Alun wrote: »

I remember reading a suggestion somewhere to pop them in the freezer for a 5-10 mins before boiling them, not enough to actually freeze them, but just enough to numb them. To be honest I wouldn't bother, it'll be a pretty quick death either way.

How cruel people can be. No animal should be cooked alive.

the beer revolu

Worztron wrote: »

How cruel people can be. No animal should be cooked alive.

You dug up a thread over a year old just to say that!!??

Worztron

the beer revolu wrote: »

You dug up a thread over a year old just to say that!!??

I made a legitimate statement!

the beer revolu

So what is your suggestion on how to cook a lobster, that was the op's question (over a year ago)?
And by the way, you gave an opinion.

Zuiderzee

Just wrote about this, at the end of the recipe on the blog there is a step by step guide on how to kill a lobster with pictures, in a quick, humane fashion - knife through the head, then lever forward.t
There is a leverage point on the head - use a teatowel under the animal.

Sparks

Worztron wrote: »

I made a legitimate statement!

Er, no, you didn't - lobsters aren't animals, they're crustaceans. No brains, just larger ganglia in the nervous system - no capacity to experience pain. They're basicly a big marine version of cockroaches. Definitely worth studying (there are only a handful of immortal species on the planet), but not PETA's demographic really.

CJhaughey

If anyone is interested the frozen ones you get in Lidl/Aldi are Canadian Lobsters, not a patch on Fresh Lobsters from this side of the pond tastewise.

The Hill Billy

Worztron:

This is the Cooking & Recipes forum & matters of food preparation are legitmately discussed here. If you have an issue with this topic I suggest that you take it up in Humanities or Animal & Pet Issues. (Be sure to read the charters in those fora before you post.)

Do not post in this thread again.

HB

The Sweeper

Sparks wrote: »

no capacity to experience pain.

Oooooo there's a contentious claim! I believe that's not conclusively proven. I would never assume that something that's evolved over millions of years can't feel pain. Pain at a very basic level is what stops us ripping our limbs off when they get caught in something as we're passing. It's what makes us lose fights for a mate. It's what reminds us that we need to get away from the creature who's trying to take a bite out of us.

Would I eat lobster? Yes I would but would vastly prefer a dead-cert method of killing it humanely before boiling it.

Perhaps this way?!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/recipes/4581872/A-humane-way-to-cook-lobster.html

Sparks

Not "feel" pain TS, "experience" it. And dead-cert way? Leave them in the freezer for 20 minutes or so first - they're then sedated.

The Sweeper

This is interest - RSPCA's guidelines on cooking your crustaceans.

http://www.rspca.org.uk/ImageLocator/LocateAsset?asset=document&assetId=1232716301988&mode=prd

Sparks, serious question - what's the difference between 'feeling' and 'experiencing' pain? Cognition?

I'm not vegetarian by any means or in any way, shape or form, but I support active euthanasia of all animals for food - euthanasia in the literal sense, meaning 'a good death'. Everything has the right to the opportunity to die well, and that includes our food animals.

I would love to see an upsurge in old-style butchers and fishmongers and a down-surge in packaged supermarket meat and fish. I think it would help curb overproduction and waste and help promote awareness and, simply put, care of what we eat.

Mellor

Worztron wrote: »

I made a legitimate statement!

True, but what made you search for this thread in the first place?
searching random terms??

Sparks wrote: »

Definitely worth studying (there are only a handful of immortal species on the planet), but not PETA's demographic really.

They aren't immortal Sparks, was already mentioned. Their mortality doesn't increase with age (Negligible senescence), which just means they die naturally at a constant rate. If you kept on in a safe controlled environment, it might live a very long time, but not forever.

Sparks

Negligible senescence doesn't mean that they die naturally at a constant rate, it means that if you look at a 50-year-old lobster and an 80-year-old lobster, you won't see any decline in health at a macro- or microscopic level due to those 30 years assuming that they didn't suffer from illness or injury or from other environmental issues in the interim. And so far as I can tell, nobody has ever figured out an upper limit to their age because we don't usually run experiments over centuries, given that we don't live that long (there are a handful of exceptions, but they tend to be simple, like the pitch drop experiment -- caring for a lobster and maintaining an optimal environment for it for a minimum of a century and an unknown maximum would be far more complex). Would it be forever? I don't know. Wouldn't mind finding out though

Sweeper, the difference is the ability to understand the sensation. Even the simplest organisms could be said to feel pain, but only on the level of reflex. To experience pain requires it to get above the level of a reflex and to become an actual understood sensation. Given their physiology, lobsters just don't have the physiological capacity to experience pain in that way - they might feel pain, but only in the sense of it being a high-priority sensory input indicating damage. And yes, I completely agree on the idea of humane dispatching of food animals and on the undesirability of modern intensive battery farming of food animals. I just don't think that most of what PETA advocates has a basis that's physiologically possible, let alone ethically viable.

Minder

What a horrible twist of fate - a creature that is possibly immortal and delicious at the same time.