How to boil lobster

How to boil lobster – The lobster

The lobster is a marvellous animal which once was considered the insects of the sea, thus not eaten but instead used as fertilizer on the farmlands. The lobster is a shellfish which can be found in both seawater and freshwater. The seawater lobster is a little bit larger than the freshwater kind and lives on the continental shelf where it feeds and reproduces. Although the lobster is able to catch fish on its own it is generally a scavenger eating things that other sea animals leaves behind. Since the lobster is a shelled animal, having an outer shell instead of an inner skeleton, the delicious meat is just a treat to eat. When the lobster is growing it will molt, shedding its shell so that it can grow a new little bit larger shell, the lobster usually hides during this period because it is extremely vulnerable then.

How to boil lobster – Boil away

The main trick behind boiling the perfect lobster is that the lobster is alive when thrown into the boiling water. It might seem cruel but the lobster will die almost instantaneous so in a way it is much less cruel than trying to poison it or something like that. While transported the lobster usually have some kind of rubber band holding their claws together so they will not hurt each other or the handler. If stored for to long with rubber bands the meat inside the claws will deteriorate so it is important that the lobster is as fresh as possible. In a fish tank the lobster can survive for a couple of days and in the fridge just under a couple of hours, the best lobster, anyhow, is directly off the fishing boat. Boiling lobster is extremely easy since all it takes is to boil up a large pot of water, remove the rubber bands and drop the lobster into the water. Cover the pot and let the lobster boil on medium heat for 5 minutes for the first pound and then 3 minutes for every additional pound. Time this perfectly and remove the lobster from the water at just the right moment since it is very easy to overcook lobster. For those uncomfortable with the idea of boiling the creature alive it is possible to, with a knife, make an incision just behind the lobster’s neck, severing the central nervous system and killing it instantly. This procedure may affect the taste of the lobster though and is not thought highly of among professional chefs who have their own ideas about how to boil lobster.

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A guide on how to boil lobster