Seafood Lobster

lobster

(from The Cook's Oracle: And Housekeeper's Manual, by William Kitchiner, 1822)

Ingredients:

live lobsters​

1 large pot filled with boiling water​

use 1 tbsp. salt per quart of water​

butter or sweet oil​

Instructions:

Buy these alive; the lobster merchants sometimes keep them till they are starved, before they boil them; they are then watery, have not half their flavour, and like other persons that die of a consumption, have lost the calf of their legs.​

​

Choose those that (as an old cook says, are "heavy and lively," and) are full of motion, which is the index of their freshness.​

​

Those of the middle size are the best. Never take them when the shell is incrusted, which is a sign they are old. The male lobster is preferred to eat, and the female (on account of the eggs) to make sauce of. The hen lobster is distinguished by having a broader tail than the male, and less claws.​

​

Set on a pot, with water salted in the proportion of a table-spoonful of salt to a quart of water; when the water boils, put it in, and keep it boiling briskly from half an hour to an hour, according to its size; wipe all the scum off it, and rub the shell with a very little butter or sweet oil; break off the great claws, crack them carefully in each joint, so that they may not be shattered, and yet come to pieces easily; cut the tail down the middle, and send up the body whole.​

Photo by Claude Covo-Farchi, CC-2.0​

 

[Drew]

Oh, man from 1830. No one should eat a lobster or any other shellfish that wasn't alive when put in the pot.

But boiling a lobster for an hour? That's like a good steak, cooked over-well done. Yuck! Thanks for posting the recipe, though.

I've wondered how hungry the first guy to eat a lobster must have been.

 

[donna]

It is National Lobster Day. Why not have lobster for supper.

 

[Seduzal]

Any day is Lobster Day for me! Had some last week with steamed Shrimp, New Potatoes, Also corn on cob. and going to get a whole one tomorrow for Fathers Day!