Cook a Lobster
Lobster is often one of the priciest items on the menu in fine restaurants, but it’s quite easy to prepare them at home. You may buy live lobsters and boil them whole or simply cook the tails. This article provides instructions on how to cook boiled whole lobster and broiled or grilled lobster tails.
Contents
Ingredients
Boiled Whole Lobster
- Live lobsters, one per person
- A large pot of salted water
- Melted butter, for serving
Grilled or Broiled Lobster Tails
- 6 lobster tails
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- Salt and pepper
- Olive oil
Steps
Boiled Whole Lobster
- Buy live lobsters. Live lobsters may be available in your grocery store, at your local fishmonger or if you're exceptionally fortunate enough to live in a lobster fishing area, right off the boat that caught them. Look inside the lobster tank for lobsters that seem healthy and active. Avoid lobsters that are too still or have holes or black marks on their shells.
- Fill a large pot ¾ full with water. Add 2 tablespoons of coarse salt for each quart of water, and bring the water to a quick boil.
- Plunge the lobsters into the water. One at a time, pick up the lobsters by the body and plunge them headfirst into the boiling water. Cover the pot with a lid.
- Do not allow the water to overflow. If there isn’t room in the pot for all the lobsters you bought, cook them in two or more batches.
- Cook the lobsters. Once the water has come to a boil again, begin timing the cooking of the lobsters. One-pound lobsters should cook for about 15 minutes, 1 ½-pound lobsters for 20 minutes, and 2-pound lobsters for 25 minutes. The lobsters are finished cooking when their shells have turned bright red. Remove them from the pot and set them on a plate on their backs to dry and cool. This keeps the juices in the lobsters.
- It’s important to time the cooking, since lobsters may turn red before they are fully done.
- Serve the lobsters whole. Place each lobster on a dinner plate for serving. Serve each lobster with a small cup of melted butter, a nutcracker for cracking the claws, a lobster pick and a bowl for the discarded shells. See How to Eat Lobster for a tutorial on which parts of the lobster are good to eat.
Grilled or Broiled Lobster Tails
- Heat your grill. Prepare to cook the lobster tails by heating your grill to medium high. Make sure the entire surface of the grill is evenly hot.
- If you are broiling your lobster tails instead of grilling them, turn the broiler on to heat up your oven.
- Butterfly the lobster tails. Using a sharp pair of kitchen shears, cut lengthwise down the middle of the softer underside of the lobster shells. Insert metal skewers lengthwise through the meat of the lobster tails. Brush the tails with olive oil on both sides.
- Grill the lobster tails. Lay them across the grill cut side down and cook them for about five minutes, or until the shells turn bright red. Turn the tails over, cut side up. Sprinkle minced garlic, salt and pepper into the lobster meat, and top with a few spoonfuls of butter. Grill for an additional five minutes, or until the meat is no longer translucent.
- If you are broiling your lobster tails instead of grilling them, complete this process in your oven. Broil them cut side down for five minutes, remove them from the oven and top with garlic, salt and pepper, and butter, and replace in the oven for five more minutes.
- Serve the lobster tails. Place each one on a plate and serve with melted butter and lemon wedges.
Tips
- Adding salt to the boiling water when cooking whole lobster makes it less likely for minerals from the lobster to leach out due to the concentration gradient.
- Lobster tails are available frozen as well as fresh. Frozen lobster tails will require a slightly longer cooking time.
Warnings
- Some people say they have ethical issues with cooking lobster by Method 1 here.
- Tomalley, the green paste found in lobster, functions as the lobster's liver and pancreas. It can be eaten and is considered a delicacy for its flavour. However, it is also much more likely to contain poisons than other parts of the lobster. Lobsters captured during red tides likely contain high levels of toxins, and tomalley from these lobsters should not be eaten.
- Avoid getting pinched by a lobster's claw. If you're experienced, remove the bands just before cooking. Otherwise, do not remove the bands from the lobster's claws until it is fully cooked. (Some people say that they can taste when the lobsters are cooked with the bands on.)
