The Best Ways to Cook Live Lobsters
What’s the most humane way to turn a live lobster into a succulent dinner? The debate has gone on for years with lobster eaters claiming the lobsters feel no pain when they’re tossed alive into boiling water, and lobster advocates demanding that better ways be found for killing and cooking live lobsters.
There has been a lot of scientific research done to try to determine the amount of pain a lobster actually feels. While not being totally conclusive the findings have been good news for people who love to eat fresh lobster.
A lobster cannot feel pain the way humans know it. Its nervous system is too undeveloped, and its tiny, simple brain is only a bunch of nerve endings. The brain of a lobster is about the size of a grasshopper’s brain and lacks complexity.
Scientists have concluded that there is no way a lobster’s brain is complex enough for the lobster to be able to feel pain when plunged into boiling water. The findings have ended the debate about cooking lobsters, at least for now, by saying it’s okay to boil, steam, and grill live lobsters.
Steaming a lobster starts with a four to five gallon pot containing two inches of seawater or salted water and containing a steaming rack being brought to a rolling boil over high heat. Once the pot is up to temperature, add the lobsters one at a time. Put the lid on the pot and start your timer. It takes about 10 minutes to cook one pound of lobster and around an hour for six to eight pounds. Halfway through the cooking time, rearrange the lobsters in the pot.
If you want to boil your live lobsters, add 3 quarts of water to your large pot for every 1 to 2 pounds of lobster. For each gallon of water you end up using, you will need to add one quarter cup of salt. Bring the pot up to a rolling boil. Once again, add the lobsters to the boiling water one at a time. Start timing immediately. One pound of lobster will require 8 minutes of boiling time. Six to eight pounds will take 50 minutes to an hour. Stir the lobsters half way through the cooking time.
Before grilling lobsters, you have to parboil them. Use the same procedure you use when boiling lobsters, but only boil them for five minutes. Remove the lobsters immediately and plunge them into cold water to stop the cooking process, and then drain them thoroughly. On a cutting board, lay a lobster on its back. Split it down the center with a sharp knife and remove both the black vein in the tail and the sand sac near the head. Use butter or oil to baste the lobsters before placing them flesh-side down on the grill for five to six minutes. Turn them over, re-baste, and finish cooking another four or five minutes.
There are still people who shy away from lobsters that are cooked live, but most have come to accept the fact that the lobsters do not suffer. Cooking a live lobster is the way to experience the freshest lobster meat available. Not only can you purchase live lobsters at restaurants and supermarkets, there are also many wonderful online seafood shops that promise the very freshest lobster delivered to your door overnight.
This article really explains seafood, but this topic is just too large and can’t be explained in just one article. There is also lobster that we could go on and on about. You may also want to check out lobster claws.
Sphere: Related Content
Leave a Comment