How to Throw a Bring Your Own Lobster Party

A Bring Your Own Lobster party is an unforgettable experience. It involves fairly straightforward preparations and the whole evening is centered around the main meal. Here is how to throw your own party. It works best when there are no more than six guests because of the cooking space and time required.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Two very large soup pots with lids
• <br>Tongs
• <br>Six guests who each bring a live lobster
• <br>Six sticks of butter
• <br>Three loaves of crusty French or Italian bread
• <br>Napkins
• <br>Six small bowls
• <br>Six nut crackers
• <br>A plastic table cloth that can be thrown away
• <br>Beverages

1. Send or email invitations to your Bring Your Own Lobster Party. Be sure that each guest understands that they should arrive with a live lobster. Live lobsters can be purchased in most large department stores. You can buy them a day ahead and keep them alive in the refrigerator. Also ask each guest to bring either a green salad or a desert to share.

2. Set a festive table using a plastic table cloth that you can throw away. In addition to the normal plate, salad plate, utensils and napkins, each guest will need a bowl for melted butter as well as a nutcracker. Decide if you will serve the salads and desert at the table or from a buffet counter. Make sure that you have plenty of serving spoons and salad servers.

3. Add water to each of the large soup pots so that they are about 2/3 filled. About 30 minutes before the guests are due to arrive, bring the water to a boil, cover the pot and turn the heat down so that it continues to simmer. Also melt the butter ahead of time and keep it warm so that you can ladle it into the bowls exactly when you are ready to serve the lobsters.

4. Admire the lobsters after each guest has arrived. It is fun (and a bit sadistic) to have lobster races on a kitchen table before cooking the beasts. The winner can be cooked last.

5. Bring the water in the pots back to a rolling boil. Holding the lobsters by the back of their shells, drop them alive into the boiling water. You will probably be able to cook two lobsters in each pot at the same time. Cover the pots and set a timer for 10 minutes. When the timer goes off, use the tongs to carefully remove the bright red lobsters from the water. Allow any excess water to drain back into the pot. Place the cooked lobster whole on a dinner plate. Repeat the process until each guest has a cooked lobster.

6. Explain how to eat a lobster. Tell your guests to break off the legs and suck out the meat. Show them how to use the nutcracker to open the shell. Discard the green guts. Loosen the shell around the tail with the nutcracker and pull out the meat. Soak each piece in butter before popping them into your mouth. Eat slowly, laugh, tell stories and enjoy each other's company around such an unusual feast. Who can forget an evening like this? Your guests will ask you to make a Bring Your Own Lobster Party an annual event.

Tips & Warnings

• Since the cooked lobsters are bright red, this makes a wonderful Christmas or Valentine's Day party.
• <br>Some of your guests may not like lobster. They can be directed to bring a piece of steak, chicken or other main course that you can cook easily under the broiler while the lobsters are boiling.