Cooking a Live Lobster? Keep These Things in Mind

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So you’ve decided to cook lobster, and a live one at that. But if you’ve just about entered panic mode and are thinking of cancelling your lobster order, hold that thought. Instead of losing it, just read the following idiot proof guide to choosing and cooking lobsters.   

CHOOSING A LOBSTER: 

Before you get anywhere near cooking a live lobster, you need to choose the right one. You can go to your local seafood store, a supermarket, or you could even order it online. What you need to know is that your lobster must be fresh, alive and kicking, no pun intended. Also, the tail should not be curled. The color of the lobster does not really matter. Depending on whether you have the utensils or not, chose a hard or a soft shell. And if you want a sweetish flavor, go for the Maine lobsters.  

COOKING A LIVE LOBSTER:

 

Before you cook a live lobster there are a few things you must keep in mind. 

First things first, we want to cause this creature the least amount of pain as possible, so you need to put it to sleep. Lobsters don’t have a complex nervous system, quite like a grasshopper’s apparently, and they do not process pain the way we imagine them to. But still to be humane, the best thing to do is to turn the lobster on its back and put it in the refrigerator for about an hour so that it goes to sleep. The drastic change in temperature is the reason the crustaceans go to sleep. Now, some people prescribe the hypnosis method, but I’m not a fan.

Second in line is the fact that you do not, I repeat do not take the bands off the claws of the lobster. It is not a future pet and you must have been taught better than to play with your food, so hands off the claws. Even after you’ve put them to sleep, don’t remove the bands. The materials can withstand the whole boiling process, so you can take them off after the lobster has been cooked.

The third thing to remember is to put the lobster into water that has already started bubbling. You don’t put it in room temperature water and then heat that up as it might cause the lobster the most discomfort this way. 

This is an idiot-proof guide, so the results should all be positive. So cook to heart’s content and don’t forget to comment and let me know about your experience of cooking a live lobster.