BS: Lobstahh, eh?

Subject: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: gnu
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 05:16 PM

Now, my buddy Jiimy swears that a 4 pound lobster with dark claws is the best eatin of all. Mum says that anything over a pound and a half in full season (full season is just before the molt fer ye non-lobster eatin types) is tough and not sweet (sweet... ya gotta eat it ta know, eh?).

I saw a ten pounder today at Sobeys today with dark claws. But, What come to my mind is this. At near $10 a pound for this size lobster, why would they cook it on spec? Only reason to cook a fresh caught lobster that size is that, if it doesn't sell, you treat the staff to a pat on the back reward?... or sell it to a restaurant cheap?... or ??? So, I would be leary about even thinking to go crazy and buy it on accounta I would worry about it being in the tank so long that they figured they had to cook it before it died of malnutrition. (Oh yeah, it happens and it makes me angry.)

In any case, I would welcome comments from people about what they think is the best size, colour, whatever, to buy. Of course, I mean cooked, unless there are ways to judge them live. And I don't mean at the wharf.

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: GUEST,Janet
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 05:44 PM

The smaller the better, as long as their size is legal!

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 05:53 PM

Once upon a time, somebody fed me a lobster dinner on Mount Desert Island, just south of Downeast Maine. She offered me four one-pound lobsters, but I settled for three. They were a trip to heaven, far better than the big ones. After all, you have to save room for the beer and the corn on the cob.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: gnu
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 06:26 PM

Corn? Nope... just beer and crackers.

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 06:32 PM

last lobster I had was over 20 years ago it was a rubbery, dried out pitiful little thing at Red Lobster restarant.

I used to love lobster.

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: Cuilionn
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 06:32 PM

Aren't the bigger ones supposed to be left in the sea, as they produce far more baby lobsters?

My favourite would be a small (one-to-two-pound) "shedder" (caught when the shells are soft from molting). Break off the smaller side of the big claws & use it as a pick to get all the claw/leg meat.

*sigh* I'm dreaming, of course. The only time we eat lobstah is when we have out-of-state guests, and we share one to keep it cheap. That said, I'll be selling at a couple of farmers' markets this summer and one of the other vendors sells lobstah. Wonder if we could barter?

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: SINSULL
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 07:12 PM

First of all, given the crappy year we have had there will be a Lobster Boil sometime this summer. There will be no sharing, Cuilionn. You may have mine - I despise the horrid creatures. Tami and I have hot dogs, steak or hamburgers and are delighted.
Second, throw that big sucker back in the ocean and let him reproduce. Survival of the fittest. 2# is plenty. Although my Dad brought home a 9# lobster once (a gift) and my sister-in-law thought she had died and gone to heaven.
Name him Brutus and let him live.
SINS

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: Sorcha
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 07:21 PM

'leery' not 'leary'. Spel chek

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 07:32 PM

Best sea food of all is fresh crab, twice as best as lobster.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: kendall
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 07:40 PM

I had crabs once, I'll take the Lobster.
Only in Maine is the big Lobster protected. When I was in Massachusetts a friend gave me a big Lobster. It was tougher than Japanese algebra and all but tasteless. The two pound hard shell is my choice.

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: gnu
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 07:44 PM

I'd rather have lobsters than crabs.

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 08:02 PM

Best is about 1 lb before molting, when the shell is full of sweet meat. After molting when the shell is soft you will be paying for shells that are half empty. There is already so much waste on lobster that you want the shells full.
I notice at my local supermarkets raw frozen lobster tails. I do wonder from whence they came? Lobster should always be alive when cooked so I suspect that the dead ones in the tank are being salvaged.

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: artbrooks
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 08:55 PM

I think that the frozen lobster tails are mostly rock lobster - a different critter entirely.

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: Rapparee
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 09:03 PM

I like the 1 to 2 pounders you can get at the docks right here in town. Good, fresh, Idaho lobster with melted butter...MMMMMMMMMM!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: gnu
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 09:10 PM

Well, Kendall, I got a looong stooory. But, here's the nut. I didn't know he was gonna poach it, but it was a claw monster. As soon as he had it aboard and under the rear rope he steamed full for Cape Enrage and then cooked it up. Three large men ate more than our fill and he filled a 5# margerine container with the remaining meat. It was delicious.

But, I guess that was out of the ordinary. Then again, coulda been the beer too.

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 09:20 PM

No artbrooks, Atlantic lobster for sure.
Idaho lobster? Rap are you joshing us or are those crawdads? :-}

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: Sawzaw
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 09:21 PM

I don't want to be putting anybody down but the wife and I had a Maine lobster dinner once at a lobster shack up around Bar Harbor and it was the pits

I guess it's because we are used to eating Maryland steamed crabs that are cooked with more spices. Blue crabs are nasty things, nothing but a spider that lives underwater and eats anything including dead people. That's why they taste so good.

Anyway we boil 'em with a lot of salt, red pepper, crab seasoning and vinegar.

The Maine lobsters we got were boiled with nothing and rubbery. It came with Cole slaw with no cole slaw dressing to speak of. Very bland. I prefer the New England fried clams. I got a mess of them over in Nova Scotia and they were great.

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 09:36 PM

We always buy them live from the fishermen or local lobster pound and cook them ourselves in boiling salt water. Three one pounders per person with rolls and butter and a couple of Keith's beer makes a great feed. The local season will open here soon and prices will be affordable then. We would never consider ordering them in a restaurant where they are overpriced and often poorly cooked.

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: Rapparee
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 09:39 PM

No, really. Lobsters. One of the better-kept secrets of Idaho.

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: Cuilionn
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 10:29 PM

You get a line and I'll get a pole, honey...

(I know some folks sing it as "fishin' hole," but when I was growing up it was always "crawdad hole.")

My brother and I were sometimes sent to the creek to get crawdads for supper when we were camping. Mmmm, nothin' like bugs for supper!

(Yeah, I like crab the best too, but that's 'cause I grew up in the Pacific Northwest. One summer I worked on a boat where we got to eat the paying guests'leftover crablegs. The deckhand and I would sit on a bench in the stern, gorging ourselves and throwing the shells over the side. There weren't many perks to that job, but that was a good 'un!)

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 11:03 PM

For the record: Best dinner I ever remember was a Lobster Thermidor at Alex's Beach Bar, tables set out by the sand alongside the bay where the hovercraft swept in from the airport on Lumley Beach, Freetown, Sierra Leone. Alex was a huge blond Swede (I think ~ or maybe Dane) who obviously stood out among the small black Crios who inhabit those parts. My wife was lecturing at Freetown University at Fourah Bay in the Autumn semester 1990 & I had flown out to spend Xmas/New·Year with her, & give a few lectures on English folksong. It was just before the disastrous civil war that wrecked that poor country. {My late wife had a sort of stormy·petrel thing going, it seems ~ the previous year she had lectured at Beijing Language University & had to flee under gunfire [a night in the Beijing Toronto Hotel on way to airport; bullet-holes in wall next morning] when Tienenman Square happened, followed by a night sheltering 10 of her students in her own college room wondering if armed soldiers were going to come busting in.}

Anyhow, to undrift: the two things I most recall about Freetown are a visit to Bunce Island, the old-time slave depot full of the barracoons where the unhappy defeated awaited the ships to carry them off to the New World ~~ and Alex's superb Lobster Thermidor.

Sorry ~~ I have no idea of its weight...

~Michael~

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: LadyJean
Date: 10 Apr 10 - 01:04 AM

Wholey's Market in Pittsburgh's Strip District will, occasionally get an elderly giga lobster. The last one became some sort of celebrity. It wound up in Jay Leno's monologue, was transferred to the city aquarium and promptly died. It's shell is now on display.

Some Pensics ago, we camped with some folks from Maine who brought down two coolers full of lobsters. They were small, those lobsters, but they were GOOD! We had two apiece.

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: EBarnacle
Date: 10 Apr 10 - 09:36 AM

I guess you could call the monster Brutus--The Noblest Lobstah of them all.

Or Patrick--Give me Labsta or give me death!

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: Rapparee
Date: 10 Apr 10 - 10:18 AM

There's Lobster Thermidor -- why not Lobster Labrador, freshly Retrieved?

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: jacqui.c
Date: 10 Apr 10 - 11:38 AM

Maine lobster are the best! First time I came to Maine Kendall fed me lobster - I think he was trying to persuade me to come over permanently.

We always buy them live and he cooks them.

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: gnu
Date: 10 Apr 10 - 12:04 PM

Well, now, jac, at the risk of offending, I have had lobster from all over Atlantic Canada... from the Bay of Fundy (that story above was one) which equates to Maine lobster, to deep water lobster in Newfoundland. The lobster from Shediac Bay in the Northumberland Straight were far above the rest.

Sommat to do with a parasite that thrives in the warm waters. Makes the clams taste better too. I can tell the difference between Shediac clams and most others. The Hogs from Shediac Bay are unreal in a chowder. Of course, proper cooking is key.

And, I think it's still the leather jacket.

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 10 Apr 10 - 12:21 PM

I like the new shell lobsters - easier to eat and the meat is sweeter. They also tend to be cheaper, which makes up for the fact that there's not as much meat in them. A lobster like that doesn't even need the butter.

Last summer I had a 2 pounder, hard shell (I'd ordered soft) and it was all but tasteless.

Dan

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: GUEST,Kendall
Date: 10 Apr 10 - 07:30 PM

Ya gotta know how to cook them critters, and most restaurants don't. I have to admit that the shedders are easier to get into, but I prefer the hard shell ones. I've always done things the hard way.

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 10 Apr 10 - 08:42 PM

Yah - but hard enough to break the nutcracker is too hard by any standard!

Dan

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: olddude
Date: 10 Apr 10 - 10:02 PM

ok what about those florida ones, do they taste different from a maine one??   i know they don't have claws

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 10 Apr 10 - 11:24 PM

I've had the Carribean lobsters - they don't come close to the North Atlantic beasties.

Dan S

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 11 Apr 10 - 04:58 AM

New Jersey lobsters are ace - especially the ones that come from your friends' lobster traps, that you don't have to pay for! (There are also my favourite kind of crabs).

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: gnu
Date: 11 Apr 10 - 06:36 AM

Nutcracker... never seen one used. Only ever saw a large knife used on a claw.

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: kendall
Date: 11 Apr 10 - 07:06 AM

Dan, there are many brands of claw crushers on the market. Most are junk. I've broken a few of them just by squeezing too hard. Try Vice grip pliers. Wash them first!

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 11 Apr 10 - 10:33 AM

I prefer 1-1/2 - 2 pounders. But I don't think I've ever had bigger. Wait, I did have a cooked claw from a homungus one that a friend gave me -- it was very good, but not enough. ;-)

Best I've ever had (pound and a halfers plus) were from a lobster pound on Long Island in Casco Bay (just off Portland, Maine). Ah...fond flavorful memories of those lobsters.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: EBarnacle
Date: 11 Apr 10 - 10:50 AM

Worst I ever had was at a restaurant in Great Salt Pond, Block Island, Memorial Day weekend, 1969 [Yes they were so bad as to be memorable]. We had sailed in from Perth Amboy and as the last dinner before departure went to one of the local seafood joints. The lobster tasted like wood and had a simlar texture.

I also acquired my dislike of Nastygansett beer that evening. When I lived in The Great State of Maine, I tried the Nasty again--once. It was still lousy.

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: GUEST,Kendall
Date: 11 Apr 10 - 12:24 PM

I seldom drink beer but when I do, it's either Guinness or Sam Adams. Their Irish Red or Summer ale is great.

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: kendall
Date: 11 Apr 10 - 03:46 PM

Molsons is ok too.

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: gnu
Date: 11 Apr 10 - 04:37 PM

Molson Canadian?

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 11 Apr 10 - 06:42 PM

Thing is, lobsters being wild critters, not farmed and not fed a special diet, their taste (like all game) is subject to wild fluctuation entirely inconsequential to their preparation and serving.

I've had the occasion just plain bad tasting lobster. (Oh, yeah, thinking of one in particular.) The texture of the meat was bad, too, and parts were discolored. Inedible, but you couldn't tell until you cooked it and cracked the shell. From a source we'd never gotten a bad one from.

As I recall, though, that summer's lobsters were nothing to write home about. Could have been weather, coastal conditions, whatever. Maybe it just ate something that disagreed with US.

By the way, Guinness is wonderfully complementary to seafood of all sorts, including lobster.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: kendall
Date: 11 Apr 10 - 08:40 PM

Molsons Canadian. Is there another kind?

Batty, was that Lobster dead before it was cooked?
I've never eaten a bad tasting Lobster, except for the giant I mentioned.I'm sure that was because it was old and tough.

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 11 Apr 10 - 10:19 PM

Kendall: "I seldom drink beer but when I do...."

He's the world's most interesting man!

D

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: Rowan
Date: 12 Apr 10 - 12:43 AM

Maine lobster are the best!

Obviously spokem by one who hasn't visited South Australia and tasted theirs, which are often called "crays". It helps if you are on familiar terms with a user of SCUBA gear.

And I once taught with a bloke who came to school one Monday, after spending a weekend out in Bass Strait, with a 12' across-the-carapace King Crab shoved down his Stubbies (rather brief shorts) complaining he'd caught crabs and loved them.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: kendall
Date: 12 Apr 10 - 07:47 AM

I've eaten, and enjoyed Alaska King Crab. I must admit they aint bad, but by the time we get them they are not at their best. The local Chinese restaurant serves them but I avoid them for that reason.

Maryland soft shell crabs? They taste like fishy finger nails to me.
Calamari? an old catheter that spent the night in a bait barrel.

New England and Canadian Lobster rule.

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: Becca72
Date: 12 Apr 10 - 08:16 AM

Gnu, listen to your mother. She has it right. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 12 Apr 10 - 01:10 PM

There is a lot of snow crab (similar to Alaska king) fished in Nova Scotia. Big beasts,all legs and the meat is very tasty, perhaps a bit stronger than lobster. They are however difficult to open and extract the meat.
There are several ways to crack open lobster and I prefer using a large knife. The technique is to chop into the edge of the claw and then twist the knife. Make sure that fingers are out of the way!

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: Rowan
Date: 12 Apr 10 - 06:25 PM

New England and Canadian Lobster rule.

North of the equator, perhaps. But there is also "The" (as the locals call it) New England centred at 31° 30' E; 151° 30' W, and they do a fine line in such things at the Fisherman's Coop. Jetty at Coff's Harbour. But Bass Strait lobsters and even those from souther SA would give any from north of the equator a run for their money; there's nothing upstream of them to pollute the water until you reach South America.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 12 Apr 10 - 07:46 PM

Homarus Americanus rules!

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: Rowan
Date: 12 Apr 10 - 08:29 PM

Only for those restricted to north of the equator, Linn.

From a local website.
True lobsters are entirely marine, have a thick, strong cylindrical or flattened carapace covering all of the head and thorax, and lack a prominent rostrum. In northern hemisphere species and in Australian freshwater yabbies (called Marron, in WA) the first pair of legs are big claws but none of the Australian marine lobsters have claws at all. In most forms the abdomen is strong and ends as a broad tail fan. This enables a quick reverse escape response by swimming. The Palinura are unique in passing their early larval stages as a pelagic phyllosoma larva. The phyllosoma is long-lived, almost two years in some palinurids, and is known to travel widely in oceanic currents from the shore environments where the adults live.

Southern Rock Lobster Palinura novaehollandiae (Palinuridae) is the commonest species of lobster in southeastern Australia where it is the usual species in fish-shops and restaurants.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: EBarnacle
Date: 13 Apr 10 - 10:07 AM

Taste in "bugs" is a matter of terroire, as our wine drinking friends would agree. When I was living on my schooner in Raritan Bay, NJ, my diving friends would often givt me with some of the day's catch. While they were good, they did not match Maine's Finest in taste. Even so, it was still goooood.

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: kendall
Date: 13 Apr 10 - 12:20 PM

Most seafood is good. Exceptions, Hagfish, sculpins,Lamprey eels and Fiddler crabs. Come to think of it, some sea foods are good.

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: gnu
Date: 13 Apr 10 - 02:20 PM

While were off the subject, what's the best shrimp? Last two times I bought shrimp they were tasteless.

Kendall, if ya eats a sculpin, ya can pick yer toofs at the same time.

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: EBarnacle
Date: 13 Apr 10 - 05:59 PM

The best shrimp I ever ate were served at Harvey Gamage's yard in South Bristol, Maine. They were launching the schooner Bill of Rights and hired a local shrimper to come in with that morning's catch lightly steamed. I musta et a full tray of 'em and I especially recall suckin' the eggs offa the legs of the females. No sawse, no nothin', just the taste of shrimp steamed in salt water.

Bill of Rights was built on the same ways as Clearwater.

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: kendall
Date: 13 Apr 10 - 07:38 PM

Pandalus Borealis. Northern Shrimp. Delicious, half a notch below Lobster. Easy to over cook though. Three minutes at a rolling boil is plenty.

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: gnu
Date: 14 Apr 10 - 02:15 PM

Boil the water first or put the shrimp in and bring up the boil?

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: kendall
Date: 14 Apr 10 - 02:34 PM

Either way. I prefer to put the shrimp into cold water then bring up the heat.

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: gnu
Date: 14 Apr 10 - 02:54 PM

Thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: Allan C.
Date: 12 May 10 - 06:07 AM

Is there a "lobster season" in the New England area? Clearly you can buy lobster at nearly any time of year; but is there a best time?

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: Ed T
Date: 12 May 10 - 06:53 AM

I grew up near a Canadian lobster port. My experience below.

The taste of lobsters preferred may be influenced by what you are used to. There is a big difference between the clawed lobsters (found from Nfld. southward to warmer US waters...the majority come from Gulf of St Lawrence to Maine, but smaller numbers are also caught around the UK area) and the ones with no claws or smaller ones.

Better meat quality and content is early spring and late fall/winter, before and after they moult (warm water months tennd to be when they moult). There is an offshore fishery for the big ones off Nova Scotia. The bigger ones are tougher, need longer cooking and get a lower price. The peak size is from one and a half pounds to two pounds...determined by the restrauant business (price serving size etc).

The big lobsters, the really small ones (canners) from Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada, those that are damaged, those that are soft shelled, newly moulted (meat count can be as low as 18 percent, or as high as 29 percent) are canned....mostly in frozen non-retorted cans. Most of the canneries are in New Brunswick and PEI, and the lobsters come there from everywhere. Tails are mostly from the small (or no) clawed lobster. But, there are some from the big clawed ones...the claws are canned separately with other meat parts.

Lobsters are stored in pounds (and other facilities) year round. The longer they are in the pound, the less desirable the flavour. Same goes for off season storage in stores. Sometimes the lobster guys sell off the old pound lobsters just before the majority of the the seasons open ((beware of April and October/November) at a cheaper price...beware the taste is not as good. You can buy a Maine or Nova Scotia lobster in a store. Lobsters move all around (and accross borders) and there is no guarintee thatthe lobster branded from one location does not come from somewhere else...unless you buy it near a wharf where they are fished. Red Lobster buys lobsters (and owns buying operations) in Canada and the USA for its outlets.

The buyers can tell and normally know if the lobsters are soft shelled (low meat) from a simple blood test. But, some folks try and sell you the poor stuff, if you dont know the difference.

Colour differs from area caught (and there are some genetic odd ball colours). But, it does not impact the meat.

I like lobsters from all areas. I prefer the hard shelled ones from colder waters in May-June or in the November december period. I normally buy one and a half to two pounders...and since I like the Roe, I ask for females. The Green Tomaley in the body (acts like a liver) can contain toxins and heavy metals picked up from the water. Isuggest you don't eat too much of that stuff, as you don't know where your lobster has been.

I use a big knife and kitchen fork when I eat them. I get kind of eager, so, dont get near me when I am opening them...you could get splattered.

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 12 May 10 - 08:15 AM

Back when I live in Kennebunkport, I had a friend who worked for a seafood processing place in Portland. Occasionally he'd bring me non-commercial stuff -- spider crab legs, etc. -- or call me in the middle of the night for a 5 gallon bucket full of unshucked scallops (only time I've ever had to sample parts of the scallop other than the aductor muscle, more squid than my single-lady fridge could hold or a bag of shrimp right off the truck.

So I had the luxury of tasting things raw, too. I LOVE the taste of uncooked shrimp -- it's so richly shrimp-flavored tinged with ocean. But the texture of uncooked shrimp is not to my liking at all.

I'd kill for lobster anything today.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Lobstahh, eh?
From: Becca72
Date: 12 May 10 - 09:50 AM

The soft shells we had Monday night were very nearly perfect.