Lobster shelling is quite hard even for the one who has experience with cooking lobsters. Every step should be as careful as possible. Learn how to shell a lobster in a pretty way before any further cooking step.
You need to kill the lobster first
The first thing you need to learn is to kill the lobster in a proper way. This way will keep the lobster meat fresher and more delicious, even if need to boil it alive.
Never try to find out a humanitarian way to kill a lobster or any other animal. Let’s get straight to one thing: lobsters are not humans or mammals or fishes. Their anatomy says that they are much more similar to a cockroach or a beetle. So if you do not hesitate to kill a cockroach, you can do the same thing with a lobster.
The fastest and best way to kill a lobster is to stab it in its head. Use the tip of a knife, press down firmly and quickly behind the eyes on the head and split the head in half. This is exactly how to deal with a live lobster.
Boil or steam lobster
There are many ways to cook a lobster. The number depends on how creative and confident you are. While super chefs can introduce several lobster cooking methods on cuisine programs, you do not necessarily have to learn them. In fact, these methods are just too complicated and require certain cooking skills. Therefore, for those who are lack cooking skills, the best cooking methods are boiling and steaming.
Boiling lobsters
Boling a lobster is not as simple as what you can imagine. However, an old tip is to boil lobsters 10 minutes per pound. Many people may think that how can a whole lobster be done while the shell is hard. Well, when cooking anything, including lobsters, an indicator of doneness that is widely used is temperature, rather than time. If you want optimal tenderness and texture of lobster meat, the temperature should be around 135°F (57°C), or maybe 140°F (60°C) while the time should be just about 4 to 5 minutes for a one-pound lobster or a 1.5-pound-lobster. At any higher temperature, you will receive something like a rubber band at the end.
Boiling lobsters seem to be the easiest way to go, but there is a problem with it. After boiling a lobster in a large pot, do you see anything strange in the water? Yes, the weird white gunk floating on top and the cloudy water is from the lobster. Take your nose closer and it has a lobster smell. While boiling, a large amount of water circulating in and out of the lobster’s body and the consequence is that many flavorful compounds inside the meat are washed away. So, though it is simple, it is not how to go.
Steaming lobsters
Steaming is actually how you should go if you have nothing to do with the expensive lobster. It is quite similar to boiling except being longer and keeping more lobster’s meat flavor. It takes approximately 5 times the amount of heat energy to convert water into steam than what it does in boiling to raise steam’s temperature by 1°C. And since it has an advantage over boiling lobster: it does not dilute the flavor of the lobsters, it is preferred more in most households.
Steps of shelling lobster tails
So how to shell a lobster properly to keep the best appearance of the lobster after being shelled? Following these steps strictly, you will find it much easier to succeed in shelling lobster.
- Grab the body and the other, then twist to seperate
- Twist off the claws, separate the knuckles
- Squeeze the tail until it cracks then pull it open to free the meat
Let us explain in details!
Step 1: Remove the claws
You need to grab a claw near the body and remove it from the lobster’s body with a firm twist.
Step 2: Remove claw meat
Using a lobster cracker or a pair of kitchen shears to crack through the claw shell. If you have none of these in your kitchen, use a big knife, hold up the claw in a twist and burst off. Now remove the meat in the claw with a small fork or simply use your fingers.
Step 3: Remove the tail
Processing the tail seems to be the most difficult step when learning how to shell a lobster. To discard the body, you need to hold it in one hand grasp the tail firmly in the other hand; then, twist and gently put the tail from the body. The green part on the tail meat is tomalley. It works as a filter to accumulate contaminants from the ocean, so, it is recommended not to eat this part, although many have tried and say that this tomalley is quite delicious. In a female lobster, there is bright red roe, which is edible.
Learn more about eating lobster
Step 4: Remove the tail meat
To extract all the tail meat, you have to cut through the underside of the tail shell using a lobster cracker or kitchen shears. Then, use your hand or a fork to remove all the meat.
Watch more in this video!
If you are about to cook a perfect lobster to your family, you need to how to shell a lobster before starting. Because when you start without knowing any basic tip, you will end up crashing the whole lobster.
Visit our blog for more useful tips related to the lobster. Feel free to contact us via the below contact information if you have any further questions or requests.
- Website: www.mualobster.com
- Address: 849 Forest Ave, Portland, ME 04103.
- Tel: +1 (207) 772-3565.
