"Lobstah"

There's a picture of me as a little girl, twenty-five years ago or so, meeting a lobster for the first time. There's an open cooler and my father's hand holding a very-much-alive lobster. My dad's finger is out, as if he is gently stroking the crustacean to show how docile it is or maybe he's instructing me that "it can't possibly hurt you." I, on the other side of the frame, am not convinced. My little four or five year old self is drawn back in uncertainty, hands drawn protectively to my chest, my profile showing concern. I don't think I ever did touch it. 

I got to take a similar picture a few weeks ago. We were in Maine once again for our family vacation, enjoying our time by the lake. My grandparents arrived, bringing cukes and beans from the garden, corn from a local friend and a cooler full of lobsters. I, looking for the corn, happened to open the wrong cooler and came face to face again with my old friends. I'm pretty sure I looked similar to my childhood self as I drew back in surprise and let out a little yelp. But I ran to get Jack and poised myself eagerly, camera in hand, as I opened up the cooler for him to take a look. Snap. There's the cooler of very-much-alive lobsters, the little person peering cautiously in, close--but not too close, and the same profile, looking a lot less concerned and a lot more thrilled. But he never touched them either. 

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When my Grandpa treats us to a "lobster feed", it's a big event. The lobsters are the star of the show, requiring their own huge pot to be cooked in, their own special utensils and requiring minimal side dishes -- maybe just corn on the cob or cole slaw. As we sit down to eat, Grandpa starts to dish out the lobsters, telling my sister, "Lacey, I saved this big one for you!" Big, red lobsters sprawl over every plate, accompanied by small bowls of melted butter. A roll of paper towels is set onto the middle of the table, along with a large pot for the bodies, to be picked over later for lobster rolls or lobster stew. All is quiet for a good, long awhile, the cracking of claws and grunts of satisfaction being the only sounds until Grandpa stands up and says "Sharon, have another!"

Lobster

You can cook your lobsters in a large pot on the stove, but my grandpa has his own super large pot and separate gas burner to get the job done.

Fill the pot with 3 inches of water and add enough salt so that the water tastes like the sea. 

Bring water to a boil.

Add live lobsters. Cover the pot and bring back to a boil. 

Cook according to the size lobsters you bought:

12 - 15 minutes for 1 lb lobsters

15 - 20 minutes for a 1 1/2 lb lobster

20 - 25 minutes for a 2 - 3 lb lobster

Big lobsters tend to have tougher, less sweet meat. Bigger is not always better. 

The smaller lobsters tend to have sweeter flesh.

Serve immediately with melted butter on the side for dipping.

How to eat a lobster:

You will need some tools.

Little bowls for melted butter.

Picks for picking meat out of difficult spaces.

And crackers for tough claws. 

You'll probably want a bucket to dump shells and excess liquid and maybe a pot for lobster bodies.

And paper towels. Definitely, paper towels.

The Method.

1. Twist off claws. Crack them open (using "crackers" if needed) and pull out the meat using the pick. Sometimes there is meat in the joint and "arm" too, so be sure to check.

2. Grasp the body with one hand and the tail with the other and bend downwards to break them apart, twisting if needed. The legs have some meat in them if you want to suck them out. Otherwise, most of my family discards the bodies to be picked over later by my Grammy for lobster rolls.

3. Pull off the tail fins and suck out the meat. Then, insert your finger into the smaller hole at the tail fin end and push the meat out the other end (where the tail attached to the body). Pull back the meat on the top side of the tail. This will reveal a black vein that you should remove since it is lobster excrement (similar to deveining shrimp). 

4. Put all that meat in the melted butter and then eat. 

5. Ask for another.

PS  -- The green stuff is NOT lobster poop. It is called tomalley and is the lobster's liver. 

It is eatable, but my Grammy is the only one in our family that eats it.