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Lobster Basics |
There are other ways of cooking lobsters, but they actually prefer
to be boiled to death. A fresh lobster has to be alive up to cooking
time, and should be purchased that day. You need a large pot big
enough for a basketball and more than a foot high in order to cook
3 or 4 lobsters at one time (1.5 lbs. to 2 lbs. each.)
Fill the pot a little more than half full with seawater, or add
one fistfull of salt to regular water. Salt water requires a higher
temperature before boiling, so you need a lot of heat, like a propane
burner or other source of flames licking around the bottom of the
pot. (A cover helps) It may take two beers before you have achieved
a violent, rolling boil - ready!
Use big tongs or a work glove to gently slide the lobsters in with
claws down, in order to avoid getting scalded by a splash. They
all need to go in pretty quickly for even cooking. If the boil continues
briskly, you will need a few minutes less than if the boil dies
down completely when you have added all the lobsters.
It should return to boil in two minutes with a cover, and the shells
should turn bright red in a couple of minutes.
Poke the lobsters down with the tongs and roll them around for even
cooking. The bottom of the pot is hot enough to put burn marks on
the shell if one sits touching the bottom. The lobsters also float-up
and need rotation to make sure one part isn’t out of the water
for the whole time.
Cooking time for three or four lobsters may be about 12 minutes
in a frothing, rolling boil, or 20 minutes if the heat and boil
are gentler.
A few minutes after the shells are red, some white strings start
to boil out of the shells. After a couple of more minutes of watching
the white stuff boiling in the water, the lobsters are done, and
that should be exactly 12 to 20 minutes after the official start.
Pull them out on the early side of this time frame and they will
not get rubbery. They are legally done if the tail meat is white
instead of translucent.
Serve hot with individual cups of melted butter for dipping. Obviously,
you have to gently crack the claws with pliers or a nutcracker.
Pull off the tail section and squeze it until it cracks before splitting
off the shell. The tops of all the legs have some good meat too.
All the white meat is good, any red egg strips are good, and even
green butter is good for some. Just don’t eat the shell or
the strange organs in the head and torso section.
Once in a while, in the Northeast, you can get a seven pound lobster.
Then you need an old washtub as the pot (one time use,) a big, open
fire with hardwood or bigger propane burners, and a canoe paddle
as well as tongs. Also, definitely leave the rubbers on the claws
through cooking. Otherwise the cooking process is the same.
You need a cold hearted helper to push down with the paddle in the
beginning. Then, it’s back to the basics for about two beers
or a timespan of 20 to 30 minutes. Serves two for a week. (Or about
four in a banquet atmosphere.)
-Phi
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