Title: How To Boil Live Lobster
Categories: Lobster
Yield: 1 Servings

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Many cookbooks will tell you to "plunge live lobsters head first in boiling water to cover. " But when I was a teenager, an Indian from Laprairie in Quebec taught me a much better way. I have used this method to cook live lobster ever since.

First, choose a large saucepan or soup kettle. Place the lobster on a large piece of clean cotton or cheesecloth, tie the corners together at each end. (This is not absolutely necessary, but it gives a deeper red to the lobster as it cooks, and it makes removal a simple matter by lifting the cloth bag with long forks slipped in each knotted end. )

Cover the lobster completely with cold water and add 1 tablespoon coarse salt. If you're lucky enough to be near the sea, use sea water and omit the salt.

Bring the water to a boil over high heat and let it boil 3 to 4 minutes, then lower the heat to simmer and cook another 12 to 18 minutes, depending on the size of the lobster. An overcooked lobster will have stringy meat.

As soon as the cooking period is finished, remove the lobster from the water and dip briefly into a bowl of cold water. This will stop the cooking without cooling the meat.

The Best Lobster: An old seaman living in Covey Cove, Nova Scotia, proved to me that the only way to cook fresh lobster is to start it in icy cold sea water with a good handful of seaweed. Bring it to a boil over a roaring fire built on the shore. When the lobster becomes deep red, fish it out and eat it. I got around this by using very cold water and sea salt purchased at the drugstore. With a tinge of sadness I replaced the fire with my stove's fastest heat. I got the seaweed easily enough from the market where I bought the live lobster. A dish of hot melted sweet butter and a big bowl of watercress complete this lobster treat.

New Brunswick: Lobsters when taken from the water are usually of a very dark mottled bluish-green color, unless they come from a sandy watershed, when they may be reddish brown in appearance.

After lobster is cool enough to handle after cooking, place the boiled lobster on its back and remove both lage and small claws. If it is to be broiled, split lengthwise from the head right down through the body to the top of the tail, using a large sharp knife.

If it is to be used for entrees or salad, separate the head or body portions from the tail, at the point where these join, by giving a sharp twist with the hands. With a sharp knife, open the tail by cutting through the thin cartilage beginning at the body and working downward. After removing the thin shell of cartilage, the meat in the tail portion is exposed and can be readily lifted out of the shell. The only part to be discarded from this section of the lobster is the intestinal cord which runs right down the very centre of the back and which may be a dark greenish color or may have very little color.

Open the body by splitting down the centre. Remove the feathery gill-like portions (sometimes referred to as "fingers") which lie around the meat close to the shell and also the sandbags. This sandbag is found in the centre of the body. It tough and cartilaginous and grayish green in color. The female or hen lobster usually contains "coral" as the eggs are called. This should be kept and used for garnishing.

The meat is best separated from cartilage by means of a sharp pointed knife and nut pick. The soft grayish green substance found in the lobster is fat and should be saved. Crack the large claws carefully with hammer or nut cracker and remove flesh. The small claws contain very little meat and are generally used as a garnish or in a sop pot. If they are to be opened, split them lengthwise with scissors and remove the meat.

NOTES : The New Brunswick portion of these lobster hints was provided by the New Brunswick Home Economists Association. Posted to MM-Recipes Digest V4 #10

Recipe by: The Canadiana Cookbook/Mme. Jehane Benoit/1970

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