By
eHow Food & Drink Editor
Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Things You’ll Need:
Step1
Fill a large stockpot with enough water to cover the lobsters, and bring to a boil over high heat.
Step2
Salt the water lightly and add lemon juice.
Step3
Put live lobsters headfirst into the boiling water. If you choose to kill them quickly before boiling, do this now (see Tips).
Step4
Allow the water to boil again, and then turn the heat down to medium.
Step5
Cover the pot and cook 5 minutes for the first pound and an additional 3 minutes for each additional pound. Like all shellfish, lobsters overcook almost instantly, so remove them from the water as soon as they're done.
Step6
Remove the lobsters from the water and drain them on paper towels.
Step7
To prepare the lobsters for the table, twist off each large claw, leaving the claw joints intact (there's a lot of meat in the joints). Crack the claw shell with a nutcracker or mallet.
Step8
Hold the body of the cooked lobster with a clean kitchen towel (it should still be hot) and twist off the tails with your hands. Remove the tail meat by separating and removing the tail shell with your fingers.
Comments
Anonymous said
on 7/20/2006 Cook the lobster in water taken right from the ocean, if you can. It makes them much tastier, and the sea salt is better for you than table salt. Use a large water jug with a cap to carry the water home in.
Plus, make sure to remove the elastic bands from their claws. If you've never done this before you won't believe the wonderful difference in the taste; you'll never cook a lobster with the elastics on again. Scared they will pinch you? Just clip the elastics off with sharp scissors making sure to hold on to the back of the body (they can't reach back there).
Anonymous said
on 11/22/2005 Before bringing lobster to the table, snip off the very ends of the claws. Hold the lobster by the tail, and let the juice drain out of the shell. Save the juice and shells to boil down and reduce for stock to use in other seafood recipes.
Anonymous said
on 11/22/2005 Many neglect the meat in the body of the lobster. Split the body in half and clean out the nodes - similar to the meat between ribs. If you take the time to clean the body, it is well worth the effort. Yum!
Anonymous said
on 11/22/2005 Lobster claw rubber bands are great to put around the lobster crackers, making your utensil drawer neater. Also use to hold picks together.
Anonymous said
on 11/22/2005 I've always steamed my lobsters.
I think that boiling them makes them water-logged. I put them in a 1/2 inch of of boiling water for approx. 20 min. Lobsters have a tendency to make their own water.