How Long to Boil a Lobster

Lobster is the great American luxury dish. Once seen as a trash fish by fishermen more interested in cod than clawed crustaceans, this shellfish are now considered a peak gastronomic experience. Like many American favorites, it's simple to prepare, and just as simple in presentation. Though there are many ways to use lobster, the classics are broiling, steaming and boiling. Of all these, boiling remains the most common home method of making a lobster meal. Technique and timing are straightforward and equipment needed is minimal. Most cooks can easily prepare a successful lobster dinner without error or concern.

Considerations

When cooking lobster, the first consideration is whether you have a big enough pot. A lobster cooking pot should be large enough to contain the lobster you are cooking, and to allow the water to cover the lobster completely, barring the occasional extending feeler or toe-tip. As with pasta, you also want to leave room for a high boil boil-over.

Lobsters are not conveniently shaped in regards to pots. A lobster at full extension with tail straight and claws extended takes up a lot of room. While a good cook will practice a certain amount of lobster origami getting the lobster into the cook pot, this will be made simpler if there is plenty of pot to fold your lobster into. A commonly recommended size for four chicken lobster is a 16 quart pot. This is not too large a pot, and if you are cooking larger lobsters or lots of them, go up in size with a working assumption of a gallon of water per pound of lobster.

To Kill Before Or During.

The increasing interest in producing food by humane methods has led to an ongoing debate regarding when to kill the lobster you are planning to eat: before cooking or in the process of cooking. A previous argument was that lobsters had little if any sense of pain, and no particular awareness of temperature changes. Therefore it was recommended that lobsters be placed in a pot of cold water which would be placed on the stove and brought to a boil. In this understanding the lobster would cook without ever knowing it was cooking.

A recent study put out by the School of Biological Sciences at Queen's University, Belfast, indicates that crustaceans feel and remember pain, and a new dispute about how to kill them has come into play. Current arguments are for various forms of pithing (insertion of a sharp object into the brain) and similar methods of achieving brain death prior to cooking the lobster. When performed immediately prior to cooking, there should be no drop in food quality.

Another technique is to put the lobster into a freezer for a half an hour before cooking. The extreme cold is believed to dull the lobster and put it into a sort of natural state of sedation. A final, unstudied possibility is plunging the lobster head first directly into already boiling water, counting on the fast transfer of heat to kill the lobster before it has any more time to panic or feel pain that pithing would entail, and demanding less skill on the part of the cook. There is no final verdict on this subject in the U.S. The cook remains free to choose the preferred method of the task.

Lobster Origami

A lobster, living or dead, must be put in a pot to boil. If living, it will object. If not living it will remain very oddly shaped in respect to the cook pot. Therefore folding the lobster as you insert it is a desirable technique.

A lobster is best put into a pot upside down and head first. This allows the cook to firmly hold the carapace of the lobster in one hand and tuck the claws inward towards the main body. The lesser legs are far less likely to catch on the edges of the pot, and the flapping of the tail can be controlled to a degree. Keep in mind that a lobster isn't designed to be able to reach his own back: everything folds inward toward the belly. This makes folding the lobster simpler and controlling a live lobster much, much simpler.

The Boil.

Cooking water should ideally be lightly salted, though dietary restrictions should be respected. Depending on the execution methods you choose, you may start cooking the lobsters from a cold water start, or insert the lobster, live or dead, into an already boiling pot. In either case the timing of the lobster remains fairly constant. There should be 10 minutes at a boil for the first pound of lobster, and three minutes for every following pound.

Serving It Up.

Lobsters, when done, can be removed from the pot with tongs, or drained into the sink, a large colander or a sieve. Traditional boiled lobster is served whole, often one to a diner. Jumbos, large enough to feed a large family, may best be disassembled in the kitchen and served already awash in butter in a serving bowl or tureen. This avoids the problem of how to carve a family sized lobster, and who gets the "drumstick."

Classic accompaniments are butter and flavored butters. Mayonnaise bases are more often reserved for cold lobster dishes, but can be used as a dipping condiment if desired.

References

• How To Cook A Lobster
• New England Cooking Guide
• How to eat lobster and Other Items To Discuss While Eating Lobster

Resources

• Crabs "feel and remember pain" suggests new study
• How to Kill a Lobster