How to prepare live lobsters.

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
This always cracks me up! How times change.

Along the northeastern coast of the U.S., the lobster was once so common in the 17th and 18th centuries that it was considered a "junk" food. When caught in great quantities or stranded on shore after severe storms, lobsters served as garden fertilizer and as a food staple given to widows, orphans, servants, and prisoners. It was so commonly used as a food for servants and prisoners that Massachusetts passed a law forbidding its use more than twice a week - - a daily lobster dinner was considered cruel and unusual punishment!
 
unless I missed something, the google reference talks about eating live animals, not cooking live animals . . .
 
Bucky, unless I am mistaken, steam is hotter that boiling water so they should die at least as quickly I would think.
 
Steam isn't hotter (pressure not withstanding) it just contains more thermal energy. The phase change requires extra energy.

Of course I might be misremembering my college chemistry.
 
From my undsertanding (which absolutely could be wrong) water will turn into steam at 212. Water will never get above 212 (not taking pressure into account), but steam can continue to get hotter.
 
At 1 atmosphere of pressure water will phase change at its boiling point. It requires extra energy to do so. Under pressure it will achieve (much) higher temperatures.

I know some don't like Wikipedia.. but this is pretty much how I remember it.

I suspect this is why steam cooks faster without having to be hotter. In a pressure cooker it is hotter, but not nearly as hot as I expected. On the 15 PSI setting it is only 252F or 122C.
 
any Navy boiler technician can explain it - no Wikipedia required.

at the same pressure, water and steam exist at the same temperature.
if one continues to heat the steam, it's called superheated steam - ie heated above it's "normal" temperature at that pressure.

btw, the "clouds" one often associated with "steam" aren't really "steam" - it's steam that has condensed back into very fine water droplets/mist. the so called "live steam" is not "visible"
 
I've never much cared for whole lobsters steamed or broiled. Perhaps it's because I've never had one properly done, but the meat always seems dryer than when boiled, & the claw & knuckle meat in particular ends up stuck to the shell interiors & nearly impossible to extract.

And scientific heat temp facts notwithstanding, I don't like seeing the lobsters moving around in the pot until the steam kills them. When I pop them into a pot of water at a full rolling boil, that's it.
 
Breezy -

I've dined at some "lobster famous" places and long ago stopped ordering lobsters in a restaurant. I still eat them, but only bought live and cooked at home. well, if I can find _big_ frozen tails, might buy them....

commercially I think the FDA or other food crazy Czar requires them to be cooked to 475'F internal - yeah, you're right - terrible stuff and not worth wasting the money.

>>When I pop them into a pot of water at a full rolling boil, that's it.
the water muffles the sound; same with crabs. sorry (g)
 
...commercially I think the FDA or other food crazy Czar requires them to be cooked to 475'F internal - yeah, you're right - terrible stuff and not worth wasting the money...

Not likely. Boiling a lobster will not raise its internal temperature above 212º F no matter how long you boil them. In actuality, the internal temperature doesn't even approach that number.
 
Not likely. Boiling a lobster will not raise its internal temperature above 212º F no matter how long you boil them. In actuality, the internal temperature doesn't even approach that number.

yeah, true. but I've never had a lobster in a restaurant that I found properly prepared - pretty much always overcooked, you know - just to be on the safe side . . .
 
Where are these restaurants you are getting your lobster from? The best places to get lobster IMO is on the coast if the North East. The key is to go to the most run down ramshackle shack you can find. There is a reciprocal relationship between how good the lobster is and how run down the shack is. If the table is anything nicer than a 20 year old weathered picnic table then you are already on the loosing end. Silverware (aside from a possible cracker) you might ad well just leave without ordering. Building right on the water with a hole in the ceiling and a screen door entrance held together by duct tape with big rocks as tables and a roll of paper towels for napkins with seagulls outnumbering the people in the parking lot - jackpot.
 
Someone else put that statement forward. Why should I look it up, as I believe, unless it is some religious stigma, it is incorrect.;) Besides, I don't consider wikipedia a reliable source.

Craig
We need to rely on sites like
wikpidia and googlr. And being polite to other members will return politness to you as well.I cant' hurt.
kadesma
.
 
i wonder if they die as quickly with steaming? no matter; i'll be eating the little buggers with melted butter dripping from my smilin' mug.

i also like to use a rolling pin or thick water glass (empty, of course :angel:) to roll the meat out of each of the little leglets.
BT I say eat the critter anyway you want. No one has the right to tell you you are wrong.
kades
 

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom