The Single Best Way to Cook a Live Lobster
So you’re shy about killing them? It’s time to get over
it—now.
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Killing a living animal
with your bare hands is, for many of us, downright horrifying.
And that’s exactly why you
should do it.
I have no illusions about
the origins of the protein on my plate. But the knowledge of where my food
comes from is still somewhat buried in my consciousness. Like the realization
of my own mortality or the memory of my wardrobe in sixth grade, it’s something
I just don’t like to think about.
But why am I fearful of
killing a lobster? Technically, I kill a tomato when I pluck it from its plant,
and I have no qualms about that. So what’s the difference?
To start with, I don’t
feel emotionally attached to vegetables the same way I do animals. That’s
right—I'm not only a carnivore but also an animal person. Remember Sebastian
from The Little Mermaid? Remember the scene when
he's trying to escape from the chef? Yeah, I never rooted for the chef in that
scene.
Compassion isn’t a very
appetite-inducing emotion. But because I have no intention of giving up meat, I
have only one option: to face the truth.
Now, slaughtering a pig or
a cow is way above my pay grade. But lobster? Cooking a live lobster would be a
challenge, but an accessible one. The more I thought about it, the more I
realized that I could do this. I just needed a little courage.
So I enlisted the help of
Chris Gould, chef and owner of Central Provisions, in Portland, Maine—a 2015
James Beard nominee for Best New Restaurant.
As it turns out, the
technical aspect of cooking a live lobster is beginner’s-level easy. You boil
water. You add salt. You add lobster. Several minutes later, you take the
lobster out. Done.
Gould assured me that a
lobster does not “scream” or make any sound while cooking, and he declared that
I would not have to forcibly hold down the pot’s lid.
But how would I overcome
my anxiety over the actual act of killing of it? Apparently, that’s not
something Gould grapples with.
“I grew up in a family
that had animals,” says Gould, “and I always knew where food came from. People
eat meat, and in order to do that, animals have to give their lives. People
should accept that and give thanks for that. I guess I just thank the lobster
for being delicious.”
Maybe being an animal
lover and a carnivore doesn’t have to be a contradiction after all.
So one Saturday, I decided
to take the plunge.
Lobsters are best cooked
within a few hours of purchase. On one hand I’m grateful that refrigeration
makes them lethargic; on the other, it’s a bit hard to tell whether they’re
still alive. A quick finger poke proves a sufficient test—still moving!
As dinnertime draws near,
I refer to Gould’s directions:
For two 1 ¼-pound
lobsters, fill a 3-gallon pot with 2 gallons of water. (For four lobsters, use
a 5-gallon pot and 3 gallons of water.) Add about a tablespoon of salt per
gallon of water. Salting the water seasons the meat just as salting a steak
does, says Gould.
Bring the water to a boil.
This will take a while. Cover the pot with a lid to speed things along.
Once the water boils, add
the lobster (or follow Gould’s easy recipe for a New England–style lobster
bake, below).
And with that, the moment
I’ve been dreading has finally arrived.
I pick up the first
lobster, holding it by its middle as the seafood-counter girl had done, and
plunge it into the boiling water. Quickly, I repeat with the second and replace
the lid.
Whether or not lobsters
feel pain seems to be up for debate. I’m not a scientist, so I can’t know for
sure. But I can say that the process seemed quick and painless.
They make no commotion at
all. They slip quietly into the water, and that’s that. Considering all the
buildup, this is pretty anticlimactic.
After boiling for about 8
minutes, the lobsters, now bright red, are done. The delicate lobster meat
tastes delicious—just as if I’d ordered it at a fancy restaurant, but without
the pricy bill. Just as the lobsters changed from brown to bright red, they
also crossed the line between animal and meat. At this point, I’m simply eating
lobster meat, and that’s not weird at all.
New England–Style Lobster Bake
Recipe courtesy Chris Gould, chef/owner of Central Provisions in
Portland, Maine
Bring a pot of salted
water to a boil. Add a few small potatoes and boil for 5 minutes. Add your
lobsters (1 ¼-pound each) and boil for another 4 minutes. Add a few ears of
corn and boil for an additional 4 minutes. Remove all. Serve with coleslaw and
a roll. And don’t forget the drawn butter.
