Lobster, by Nagasawa Rosetsu
Few foods are more universally synonymous with luxury than the luscious lobster. Many luxury foods rise and fall in and out of fashion like the sun and moon. Yet the lobster has stayed high in the hierarchy of hedonism for over 700 years, since long before poet Alexander Pope mournfully wrote “Luxurious lobster-nights, farewell, for sober, studious days!” in A Farewell to London.
So what is it that makes lobster so grand? How does it taste? How do you prepare it? and How do you eat it? Let’s take a look.
What makes lobster so grand? A history of hedonism
Lobster is a delicious, rich shellfish that has had a place amongst haute cuisine since French royal court cook Guillaume Tirel included it in ‘Le Viandier de Taillevent’, a 13th-century haute cuisine recipe collection. A little over a century later, ‘Le Ménagier de Paris’, a guide for women running upper-class households, included five lobster-centred recipes.
Lobster’s rich, delicate flavour decays fast and is not easy to transport. This makes it naturally exclusive. In the past, the ability to buy the animal fresh and commission a horseman to race it to your home when you were holding a feast was a point of pride. In centuries past, the lobster was not such an exclusive dish for communities by the sea. Here, it would be killed when caught, transported en masse and eaten pickled or salted, with little of its lovely flavour remaining.
By the 18th century, chefs and restauranteurs had joined the upper classes in offering fine lobster dishes, transporting them alive and cooking them fresh for better flavour. The delicious taste drove up demand while overfishing eventually demolished supply. Now we protect our local supplies carefully, but how can you protect your own lobster while preparing it?
How to cook lobster humanely
Don’t worry. You don’t have to boil the lobster alive. While there has been some debate about how to cook lobster and whether boiling alive is cruel or not in the past, it’s now seen as unnecessary. You simply need to stun and dispatch the lobster immediately before cooking. The most humane way to do this is as follows:
- Freeze the lobster for 30 minutes before cooking. This will stun it.
- Place the lobster on a chopping board. Put the tip of a sharp, strong, broad-bladed knife against the top of the lobster’s shell, a little behind its eyes, above where the claws meet the body.
- Swiftly yet firmly push the knife downward into the carapace, until it touches or comes out of the bottom of the shell.
- The lobster may move a little, however it is dead. Withdraw the knife carefully and cook it straight away.
This is the most humane way to kill a lobster, as well as a great way to preserve its flavour. It’s worth mentioning here that what you have just done is more humane than the methods used to kill many meats that you eat.
A simple but delicious way to eat lobster is steamed or boiled with a little salt. Lemon juice makes an excellent accompaniment, and it tastes best when kept alive until immediately before cooking, which is the healthiest method, too.
How does lobster taste?
“When life gives you lemons, order the lobster tail.” – Ziad K. Abdelnour
Well-cooked lobster is sweet, buttery and succulent. It’s an oily fish that’s a bit like really excellent prawns but with a meatier, stronger flavour. Indeed, the rich oil itself is a lot of what makes lobster’s flavour so unique; its exceptional flavour is so popular that it often sells for hundreds of pounds per litre. Meanwhile, the taste of the fish varies from the tail, which is meatier and fuller in the mouth, to the claw, which is butterier.
If this article has your mouth watering and you want to learn how to cook and taste real Bridlington lobster you can find our recipe for a delicious Brid lobster pot here. We will also be publishing the best places to get a lobster in Bridlington next month.