Food styling by Vanessa Granof (Photo: Hans Gissinger)

Our love of lobster has leaked over into our professional lives; David wrote a piece for New York Magazine a few years ago about how to get the most out of your lobster. I thought it’d be fun to reprint his tips.

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Lobster Forensics
How to buy, steam, and suck out every last ounce of meat from your favorite crustacean.

1. The Claws
Separate the arms from the body. Hyperextend the lobster’s “thumb”and pull it off. Use a cracker or knife (or your hands) to break the shell, and pull out the meat with a fork. Because of the rubber bands placed around lobsters’ claws in tanks, the claw meat may have atrophied (a sign of a not-so-fresh lobster). The claw meat should be nearly as large as the shell around it.

2. The Head and Thorax
Additional meat can be found toward the front of the body cavity. Peel off the outer shell, split the body down the middle with your thumbs, and pick it apart (either with a fork or with your fingers).

3. The Knuckles
The connections between the claw and the body have sweet meat inside of them. Use a cracker or knife to break them into pieces and push the meat with a small fork.

4. The Walking Legs
When eating a whole lobster, you can break off the six small legs, separate them into sections, and suck the meat as through a straw. You can also press down on the legs with your fingers, moving from the ends toward the body.

5. The Tomalley
The light-green tomalley found inside the main body of the lobster is its liver and pancreas. The taste is rich, and while it can be eaten alone, many people like to mix it with bread crumbs to make a stuffing.

6. The Blood
A lobster’s blood is clear when the animal is living and turns into an opaque white gel when cooked. You’ll find this throughout the claws and body. It’s bland, but definitely edible.

7. The Roe
The roe (unfertilized eggs) in the body of a female lobster is dark green when raw, but turns bright red when cooked. It is tasty on its own, but is also used in sauces, bisques, and stocks.

8. The Tail
Pinch near the top of the tail and twist to pull it from the body. Either split the tail down the center with a knife or squeeze the edges of the tail shell together and then pull them apart, snapping the shell. The tail meat can then be removed in one piece. Pull off the sections of the tail fan at the tip for small bits of extra meat.

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The Ultimate Boat Snack

In Season: Lobster

Posted to New York Magazine by nymagstaff on June 20, 2008

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Jose Luis Martinez shows how to extract the most lobster meat.

Mermaid Inn chef Jose Luis Martinez suggests a lobster-sandwich recipe that should be prepared in advance and eaten onboard your skiff. Makes 6 sandwiches.

6 2-pound lobsters
1 small red onion, finely diced
4 stalks celery, finely diced
12 sprigs chive
6 tablespoons lemon juice
2 cups mayonnaise
Salt and pepper
6 brioche sandwich rolls
6 tablespoons melted butter

Chop the meat into ¼-inch sections and place in a large bowl. Add the finely chopped onion, celery, chives, and lemon juice to the bowl with the lobster meat. Add mayonnaise and salt and pepper to taste.
Cut each brioche roll in half and lightly brush butter on both halves. On a griddle, place the buns buttered side down and cook until they are golden brown. Take off the griddle and place about 7 ounces of lobster salad on the roll.

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Pick (and Then Cook) a Good One

Buying
“When they pull it out of the water, its tail should be flapping,” says Brendan Hayes, retail director of the Lobster Place. “If it’s limp, that’s a sign of a soon-to-be-dead lobster.” A lobster with a softer shell has recently molted and is likely to have more water weight and less meat. Cook within 24 hours of purchase.

Cooking
While it’s popular to boil lobsters, steaming with a small amount of salt water helps retain juice and flavor. Put about an inch of water in a covered pot, adding 2 tablespoons of salt for every quart, bring to a rolling boil, and place the lobsters in. A 1½-pound lobster should cook for about 15 minutes, while a 4-to-5 pounder should cook for 22 to 24 minutes, at which point the body will be bright red.

Read more about lobster in New York Magazine.

this is me (rachel).

So the lore goes like this: It was my sixth birthday, and the extended family made a little caravan to a seafood restaurant near my grandmother’s house. Being good part-time Mainers, we had a tradition of enjoying foods from the sea, but I hadn’t ventured far from seared scallops and crab bisque. Because I was the birthday girl, I was to have my first lobster. But because I was such a young birthday girl, I was to share it with my grandmother.

Grandma went hungry that night. Or least she had to go to the salad bar twice, because I ate that whole lobster, down to the tomalley.  And after that, I was hooked.

I think lobsters serve a few purposes for me.

1.They’re epic. Having a lobster always feels like an occasion, whether it is or not. The very nature of killing something alive and eating it is not something that we do very often in our culture, so it feels of some greater importance.

2. They take some serious dismantling*. Dismantling takes time, and it’s satisfying, like a difficult puzzle. Each lobster is its own puzzle, and the prize for completing it is especially delicious.

3. It’s competitive. I love competition. I want to win, to be the best lobster dismantler. I want to discover every cranny and nook. This extends to lobster preparation, and even lobster selection. There are truly correct ways to approach a lobster, and I have worked hard to learn them.

4. They’re several meals in one. Claw meat is different from tail meat. Tomalley is in a different universe of taste altogether, and the roe is dessert. You can suck on the legs when you’re having a break.

* for this reason, I also enjoy marrow bones.

Lobsters have been there for me for many celebrations. Here I am at thirty, still going lobster-strong:

And here is my kitchen, replete with a painting David made me for that very same birthday. You see, lobsters aren’t just good to eat, they’re good to look at. Which is important, as I’m a photographer.

It’s important to mention here that lobsters can often be converted/assimilated into everyday design. This year, David got lobster shoes for Christmas. We’re going to help keep you updated here about good lobster gear.

So now we’ll get down to business: recipes, history, gear, stories will abound.  Stay tuned!

We love lobsters. In fact, we think they rock. Hard. So here we’ll be talking about lobsters, giving you recipes, lobster history and fun facts, and keeping you apprised of the lobster industry.

And we’ll have some pretty pictures of lobsters too, because one of us is a lobster-obsessed photographer.

Thanks for joining us, let’s get cracking!