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

FTGFOP

Sparks wrote: »

lobsters aren't animals

Ah here! Lobsters are definitely animals.

Sparks

They're members of family Animalia, yes - but the normal meaning for the word 'animal' is mammal, not crustacean...

Wolfe Tone

Why are they cooked alive anyway?

Sparks

They're not always cooked alive (if you bifurcate the head instead, they're dead before they get cooked), but their bodies break down so fast (because of the enzymes in the digestive tract) that you can't safely keep them for any length of time.

You can remove just the tails and freeze those for later use though, since there's no digestive tract in there.

FTGFOP

Sparks wrote: »

They're members of family Animalia, yes - but the normal meaning for the word 'animal' is mammal

Is it? I refer to birds and fish as animals without feeling like I'm being pedantic or anything. Never saw it as a synonym for 'mammals' but maybe that's just me.

That negligible senescence is interesting stuff all the same.

Mellor

Sparks wrote: »

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.

Well first of all, this is the wiki description.
[QUOTE=wiki]Negligible senescence refers to a few select animals that do not display symptoms of aging. More specifically, negligibly senescent animals do not have measurable reductions in their reproductive capability with age, or measurable functional decline with age. Death rates in negligibly senescent animals do not increase with age as they do in senescent organisms.[/QUOTE]

Another term that is "biological immortality".

Biological immortality refers to a stable rate of mortality as a function of chronological age

Which is pretty much exactly what I said

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

You are right, they we don't know the upper limit, but description is wrong, desease is still a factor for these animals. Which is what I said.

They're members of family Animalia, yes - but the normal meaning for the word 'animal' is mammal, not crustacean...

Fish
Birds
Reptiles
None of these are animals? I disagree

Insects (are kinda a different case)

Pal

Specifically, crustaceans from the phylum anthropoda in the animal kingdom.

dominiquecruz

Well thanks for finally clarifying, I havent been able to sleep these past 6 months for thinking about it.

duploelabs

Topical

Mellor

Pal wrote: »

Specifically, crustaceans from the phylum anthropoda in the animal kingdom.

Did I not say that back in may?

emeraldstar

Mellor wrote: »

Did I not say that back in may?

Not really, no.

Mellor

emeraldstar wrote: »

Mellor wrote: »

Did I not say that back in may?

Not really, no.

I was referring to the part about being animalia and therefore animals. Along with the others I mentioned.

Anyway, I don't know why it was ever an issue. I mean what else would they be if not animals.

Darkginger

As for the tastiest way to cook/eat a lobster, that depends on whether it's a frozen one (best curried, done as Thermidor, or at least masked in Marie Rose sauce!) or one you've just picked up live and killed yourself. The latter is far too good to muck about with. I like to serve mine plain, either boiled or grilled, with lime and tarragon hollandaise (just make a normal hollandaise, but use lime instead of lemon, and add some fresh chopped tarragon - might have a proper posh name, but if so, I don't know it!) on the side, or just with a little pot of melted butter to dip the flesh into. Roll on summer.

faigs

Did anyone try the ones from Lidl frozen in salt water? Pretty small and not as tasty as a fresh Irish one but any serving suggestions welcome!