I'm so sorry that you are so tasty
Wegmans was running a special promotion, lobsters for $5 a pound. Not ones to pass up a good deal, Chuck, Tina, Aaron and I signed up for six. Mind you it was very easy to put ones name down for six lobsters. Cooking them was another matter. None of us had ever done so before.
Tina and I had worked ourselves into a tizzy after her stepmom told us that
lobsters scream when you put them in the water. Some investigation
on the internet revealed that lobsters don't actually have vocal cords, the
sound is steam escaping their shells. Screamers or not, Tina and I weren't too
thrilled... we yelped and squirmed as we picked up the lobsters and ushered
them home this weekend. Chuck and Aaron unceremoniously dumped them in the pots
with nary a care while we huddled in the other room. I felt terrible. They were
waving their little antenae at me.
(But they were tasty smothered in butter.)
Next time you cook your own lobster, try freezing them first. It puts them to "sleep" and then it isn't so traumatic to witness the little guys being plunged into boiling water. I grew up in Maine and always hated the procedure. I saw this technique on The Food Network.
ReplyDeleteButter makes everything better. I find it if I prepare something like fish, poultry, or a slab of raw beef, I'm most likely not to enjoy eating it after it's cooked.
ReplyDeleteDon't think I'm trying to be mean, because I'm not, I just happened to be thinking about this very same issue lately and doing some investigating of my own.
ReplyDeleteLobsters might not have vocal chords, but they do have (relatively) sophisticated nervous systems. They feel pain, in fact "the lobster does not have an autonomic nervous system that puts it into a state of shock when it is harmed. It probably feels itself being cut... I think the lobster is in a great deal of pain from being cut open... and feels all the pain until its nervous system is destroyed during cooking."
I know it sucks to think about this (I can't even begin to imagine being boiled alive), but I also think it's better to know. Here's some links if you want to read more: http://www.firstscience.com/SITE/editor/024_ramblings_05092003.asp and http://www.gan.ca/en/exceptional/lobster.htm
Ugh... I am so sorry Mr. Lobster. Well umm... actually both the lobsters I ate. Must look into freezer/coma technique.
ReplyDeletethere was a very comprehensive article in august's gourmet magazine on this. there seems to be quite a debate on this issue but this is the way i see it. it's only a psychological difference between you killing your food yourself or buying it already killed. if you're okay with one way, then you should be okay with the other. now, i eat meat. i love lobster. the slight pangs of guilt i feel when i throw a lobster into boiling water suck, but if i felt any different than i should really be a vegetarian completely.
ReplyDeleteOnce Upon A Time...I did a five year stint in a popular seafood chain. Typically we steamed the live lobsters in a commercial grade steamer, but every once in a while we'd treat them a little special and bake them. We started by opening the chest cavity and removing the tamale, then we stuffed that cavity with crab cake mix (yummy) and baked them at about 400-425 until they were done. We used convection ovens so there would need to be some tweaking to adjust for a regular oven. It works great to get a few lobsters done at once without having lots of pots going! You can also "steam" a tail in the oven by putting it in a pie tin with water and baking until done.
ReplyDeleteThe last time we boiled lobsters at home (about 13 years ago) I named the lobsters Fred & Barney. Greg had a tough time cooking those beasties.
ReplyDeletelol, love your wording "unceremoniously" -- typical guys. i've never handled the live lobsters or thought too much about how they are still alive when you purchase them. (you wouldn't want already dead ones - the older folks would say you don't know if it was fresh!)
ReplyDelete"It may strike you as shockingly brutal, shoving a live animal into boiling water. However, most scientists who have studied lobsters agree that these creatures' primitive brains simply do not register pain the same way other animals do, and that they actually do not suffer much when you cook them, provided you do it swiftly. If you are still concerned about killing your lobsters humanely, you can place them in the freezer for an hour before cooking, which will put them to sleep. Also, don't be alarmed by the "screaming" you may hear when you put them into the pot. Lobsters don't even have vocal chords; the sound is made by air in the shells expanding in the heat and leaking out."
ReplyDeleteThis was taken from www.Allrecipes.com
Oh, too funny! This reminded me of one of my favorite scences from "Annie Hall", where they are at the rented beachhouse and there are lobsters crawling all over the floor and Woody Allen is defending himself with a boat paddle and arguing with Diane Keaton over who's going to put them in the pot.
ReplyDelete:)