How to De-meat a Lobster
When you're planning on making a dish from scratch that calls for lobster meat, use fresh meat from a whole lobster for the best tasting results. Whether you're making lobster bisque bisque or a lobster salad, extracting the meat from this feisty crustacean can be difficult. You''ll need to start with a whole, fresh lobster, which you can boil or steam until they turn bright red. After letting the lobster cool down, you'll need a few kitchen tools and a little patience to get all the meat out. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
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1
Grip the body of the lobster firmly in one hand.
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2
Grip the large claw where it is attached to the body and twist off. Repeat with the other claw.
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3
Crack the center of the claws using a claw cracker or a mallet. Discard the broken shells and remove the meat from the claws.
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4
Twist all the little legs off where they are attached to the body, and use the lobster pick to get the small amount of meat in the legs.
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5
Place the lobster body on a clean cutting board, on it's stomach.
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Position the chef's knife at the center of the body where the seam between the body and head is and plunge into the lobster, splitting the lobster all the way down to the tail.
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7
Turn the lobster around and slice through the head to completely split the body in two.
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8
Remove the gills, stomach sac, and black thread of intestine from both halves of the opened lobster.
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9
Grip the tail meat firmly and pull it out of each half of the tail end.
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Combine all of the lobster meat and prepare for use in a recipe or store in a resealable plastic bag and freeze until you are ready to use.
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Tips & Warnings
If you want to remove the lobster tail in one whole piece, Chop off the top of the tail from the stomach, then place the lobster on its back. Cut through the top shell on both sides of the tail using kitchen scissors. Remove the shell to reveal the tail meat and pull out in one piece.
References
Resources
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