Today I bought a live lobster. I've been meaning to try one for a while. I haven't really been able to figure out where to buy them. Today I got thinking about it again, but failed to find a local restaurant with Google or the yellow pages that advertises lobster. Finally I called a local grocery store sort of known for having a good selection of higher priced commodities. They have a seafood department even. Turned out that they not only had lobster, but they had live lobster (apparently lobster is best if it's cooked alive). So I just sort of bought one on impulse, knowing that if I didn't I would probably chicken out.

So I now have a live lobster. They put it in a Styrofoam box, covered it with some kind of paper, then poured seawater from the tank over the paper, and poked a couple of holes in the lid. I initially left it on my counter (read: freezer) for a good 4 hours when I got home. I could swear that I read that you shouldn't refrigerate them, but perhaps it was actually freezing them that was bad (I know that freezing them is bad for sure). According to at least one (two) sources online it is OK to refrigerate them and also necessary to keep them overnight. So I finally put the Styrofoam box in the fridge. Every 15 or 30 minutes I can hear the thing rubbing or digging against the Styrofoam. It's a little bit weird, but tolerable, as long as it isn't hurting me in any way whatever it's doing.

I've done a little bit of research in the past about how to prepare them and stuff. I read that you should boil them (alive), and optionally might want to put them in the freezer briefly before putting them in the pot to prevent screaming. I guess it slows their body down so that they don't realize what's happening. I'm not sure. In any case, then apparently you boil them (I forget the details: type of water, how long, when you know they're done, etc.). I'll have to research again to figure out how exactly I should do it. I'm more concerned about utensils... I don't have many and am afraid I won't have the tools necessary to get the meat from within the shell. At least, not without a lot of fuss and mess.

In any case, Allegro.cc is pretty far stretched, so I was wondering if any members here have experience eating and/or cooking lobster. Any advice would be appreciated. I'm not sure what type of lobster it is, but it's only about a pound^[1] so I'm assuming it is a Maine variety, though I don't really know where it came from. Or anything about it, for that matter. Help.

Did you buy it at a pet shop?

You throw them into boiling water (alive), apparently the shock kills them quickly. The cruel thing to do is to put it in cold water and cook it slowly.

That's about what I know about the issue. I could never eat something I'd have to kill first (well, maybe if I were starving, but given a choice, I'll pass) and I have no desire to eat something that lived under water anyway (seafood = cat food in my world).
I've always thought having a lobster in an aquarium would be rather neat though.

Note that we have no culinary experts here.

To make things worse, lobsters are basically the spiders of the sea, too. Horrible little things.

(Also, as a side note: I wouldn't want to kill what I'm about to eat either. But I'm not about to confuse my own squeamishness for moral imperative.)

To be specific: rock lobster or spiny lobster. Why New Zealanders call them "crayfish" when that's also another species entirely I don't think I'll ever know...

Absolutely. I didn't say there was anything wrong with it, just that I couldn't do it myself.
Fortunately modern society lets me pay someone else to do things I don't want to do.

Lobster murder

That argument should be good enough to satisfy the subset of vegetarians who happily kill little human babies.

With the exception that humans have a complex somatosensory system which includes pain, and lobsters do not.

I bought a pre-cooked whole lobster at the store once. I like lobster but having to disect one to get the food part out is sort of disgusting. I don't think I would get a whole lobster again but its fun to eat at a restaurant.

They don't think you're so hot either.

...Until now!

I don't have sea water. I might have been able to purchase some at the grocery store, but I'm new to this so I didn't. Also, I live nowhere near the sea.

I've heard of the freezer thing, but I don't think the purpose is to kill them. I think the purpose is to slow their system down so their bodies can't really know what's happening when you drop them in the pot. Of course, I've also seen numerous chefs (of actual restaurants, presumably American) both dropping live lobster into boiling water and insisting that they've never heard one complain yet. I'm sure it's a wives' tale that they scream. Perhaps the freezer thing is only for very lively/frisky ones that are difficult to handle otherwise? In any case, I highly doubt that it's illegal to cook them alive in Canada or the USA. It can't be any more cruel than cutting the throat of a turkey or smashing the brain of cattle. Perhaps the only difference is that I'm doing it myself instead of an evil farmer.

Yeah, I think the only reason I consider them related is because they're both considered somewhat "fancy" or "expensive" food in American media (i.e., it's the kind of thing that you would see rich people eating in a movie, not your average American family).

That sounds good to me. I also have a frozen ring of shrimp (with cocktail sauce) in my freezer to eat eventually. I rather love shrimp so I hope I'll also really enjoy this lobster. Hopefully it doesn't put me off too much having to take it apart and clean it myself. When you ate lobster was it at a restaurant? Did they just bring you the pure meat or did they bring you the shell (as some restaurants do) and make you break it all open to get to the meat? And have you tried the tomalley? Apparently they discourage its consumption now due to contamination of the oceans, but then lobster lovers insist that it's the best part... I don't know if I'd be able to do it though since I'd be actually pulling it right out of the lobster's body.

We have things that we call crayfish here, and they do look something like tiny lobsters. I assume you are actually talking about what we would call lobsters then and not what we call crayfish?

It doesn't really seem like you benefit at all with killing them before cooking. Do you personally consider it more humane to kill them like that instead of dropping them into the pot?

I saw YouTube video guy suggest this, which confused me because no others had. Are you supposed to eat lobster meat cold or warm or hot? Is it subjective (personal preference) or is there a specific right thing to do? :-/

I had no salt at all so I went out and bought a box of "Mediterranean sea salt". Hopefully that will suffice... :-X I also bought a couple of lemons, but I'm not entirely sure what I'll be doing with them yet.

I don't think it's really any different than fishing, which I've done many times before. We generally just throw the fish on the ice and let them slowly die there. To my knowledge, there's nothing illegal or "wrong" about that. I guess we just figure the animals don't have "feelings" or "conscious minds" like us and don't consider it cruel. In any case, wilderness can be pretty cruel too, so I don't see why we should hold ourselves to a higher standard just because we do have the mental capacity to fear for ourselves like we do. A bear will still tear you to pieces under the right circumstances whether or not you humanely kill your lobster. :P As long as you're doing it for food and not to be cruel/seek some kind of sick pleasure from it then I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with it. Lobsters strike me as a type of animal that probably won't feel much in the time it takes them to die.

\o/

Sounds consistent so far. :)

;D

So far I have heard of a few various techniques. Seems there are shell crackers that you can get, similar to nut crackers. Others seem to prefer using sheers or scissors to cut the shell open. Others apparently just use a knife and twist to crack the shell. Any advice regarding that?

I've also read that there is some meat within the midsection, but it's not very much so some people choose not to bother (as it is the more "disgusting" part of the animal, I suppose). Any experience with that?

Places People

I have a pot on the stove full of water and I'm about to begin boiling it. Then I'm going to pour in a random amount of sea salt (somewhere close to a table spoon or until I feel the water is sufficiently salty). The actual volume of water is unknown to me so I'll be mostly guessing with the salt as well. While that boils I will be opening the Styrofoam box to check on the lobster (see if it is still alive, make sure it hasn't made any kind of disgusting messes in there, etc.). Once the water is boiling I will then put it into the water. :o Wish me luck.