Just a thought if you've never had lobster in the shell before....
Realize that you will probably cut yourself. There are spikey spines on the arms that you have to grab to twist the arms off the body and remove the claws from the arms... Usually your hands are damp from the seawater they have been cooked in so your skin is soft...
Also, when you snap the tail off (by bending it up and backwards over the body) there are spines along the underside of the shell that dig into your fingers and like to give nice little cuts...
Maine Lobster is MUCH different than that soft-shell, mamby-pamby gulf lobster.
Our critters fight back, even after death!
hehehe
A few tips:
Claw meat is much sweeter than the other meat.
There IS meat in the little fins on the end of the tail - sometimes you can pull it out gently, but usually you just suck it out/coax it out with your teeth.
The legs all have meat. Break them off and suck the meat out by dragging your teeth down the length of them while sucking... it's good stuff!
There is meat in the body where the legs attach, but usually by the time you get there, you've eaten the tail, both arms and the claws... you're done! But if saved, a few bodies can be coaxed to provide enough meat to make one or two lobster-rolls the day after... so if you're patient, save em, BE SURE TO REFRIGERATE THEM ASAP and you'll have a treat the next day. (If you can't put them on ice asap... don't bother - it's not worth risking food poisoning! You can buy lobster bodies at local markets for fairly cheap...)
When you snap the tail off, a WHOLE BUNCH of nasty looking green stuff will come out. It's called the Tomalley... It's an organ that fulfills two functions for the lobster. That of the kidneys and the pancreas. Some people like it... most that I know find it nasty.
Keep in mind, this is where the toxins that the lobster's body filters out from the things this bottom-feeder chooses to munch on while still wandering around on the ocean floor. I usually just rinse it off with a little water but eating a little bit of it isn't horrible.
When you get the tail off, pull the fins off the end so you have a shell-like tube with a bunch of meat in it. Push from the fin-end with a couple fingers and USUALLY the big chunk of tail meat will come right out. Make sure to split that strip of meat open by peeling back the top piece of meat to reveal the digestive tract... might wanna remove it before you chow down. Trust me. Lobster-poo isn't tasty and can ruin the experience. It'll usually be a little black tube going down the middle of the tail piece. It comes out pretty easily. You'll be more disgusted by the green tomalley...
Remove the arms by twisting at the body. Twist the claws off the arms in the same manner. Once you have the claws off, hold them with the opening facing down over your plate and open/close the claw a couple times. This will get most of the water out of the claw so when you break it apart, you won't get sprayed by as much lobster 'juice'. Remove the 'thumb' on each claw by bending it the way that looks most painful. A satisfying crack and it will usually pop right out. The thumbs have tasty meat in them.
The bigger claw parts open up easily with a nut-cracker over the space between where the thumb was attached and where the arm was attached. Crack that spot open and pull off a flake of shell and you should be able to reach in and pull out one big piece of sweet lobster meat. The claws are my favorite part and I think taste the sweetest and are the most tender of all lobster meat!
The arms are best tackled with the little miniature ice-pick thinggy they'll give you. Break the arms apart at each joint (Remember those spines? yeah, those spines and leverage are going to come into play big time here... might want to have a napkin handy for your own blood...
) then pick out the chunks. It's good stuff, but it does take some effort to get it out. Easier to eat cold-cuts? Sure is... but cold-cuts don't taste nearly as good as lobster! Stop being a puss and work a little bit for your meal!
Some folks eat the lungs.
If you want to try them, google it... I've never eaten em... and personally, it sounds nasty to me!
As always, make sure to make the lobster talk to your friends while you're enjoying it. be sure to have A LOT of napkins... those wet-naps are for cleaning most of the crap off your hands, AFTER you wiped down with the napkins and BEFORE you go into the bathroom to take a truck-stop shower in the sink.
Trust me, if you haven't eaten it before, you'll be wearing a lot of it.
Lastly... wear the bib. Please... for the love of god, there is NO shame in wearing the bib. I'm a native and have been eating lobster since I was in diapers... and I still wear the bib. I also don't have any clothes with lobster-grease stains on them.
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