HOW TO COOK AND EAT A LOBSTER -- BOILED

The uncooked lobsters that you picked up at St. Thomas’ Lobsterfest on Friday or Saturday were delivered to Huntsville on ice on Friday. They are carefully checked to be sure that they are alive before being distributed to purchasers, since it is unsafe to eat a lobster that was not alive when it was dropped into the pot.

To store the live lobsters for a day or so until ready to use, place them in your refrigerator, keeping the rubber bands on their claws. Before cooking, check to make sure your lobster becomes active when your remove it from the refrigerator and it warms slightly. You can also check by stretching the tail out flat when you pick it up. A live lobster will curl its tail toward its abdomen when you turn loose.

Make sure that the lobster is clean by grasping it firmly at the back and rinsing claws, body and back under a faucet.

Boiling lobster is the easiest way to cook it, though you can only cook a few at a time in each pot. Put enough water in a large heavy cook-pot to cover the lobsters. Add 1 tablespoon of salt for each quart of water. Bring water to a rolling boil. Leave the rubber bands on the claws and place the lobster in the water tail first,

and allow the water to return to a boil. Reduce the heat at once and simmer the lobster about 5 minutes for the first pound and about 3 minutes for each additional pound. (Most Lobsterfest lobsters weigh about 1 ¼ pound.) Boiled lobsters are red.

Drain the lobster and hold it over a bowl or the sink while you clip the ends of the claws with scissors to allow them to drain.

Eating boiled lobster is messy, so be sure to provide an abundance of paper towels or napkins. You might even want to invest in some disposable lobster bibs.

The first step is to twist and pull off the claws.

If you haven’t already done so, you can remove the rubber bands now. The claws are easiest to crack with a nut cracker or mallet, but it can be done with your fingers if you lack tools.

It is in the claws where you will find the greatest concentration of meat.

Next, pick up the lobster in your fingers, turn it soft side up and arch it until the tailpiece separates from the body.

Remove the tail flippers by bending them back until they too crack off.

Now lift the tailpiece upside down, insert your fork or fingers at the point where the flippers broke off, and push the meat out through the open end.

Having freed the tail meat, grasp the chest portion in both hands to release the contents.

The small amount of meat in the chest is edible. Some people also savor the greenish tomalley or liver

and the red coral or roe (the latter only found in a female).

The spongy lungs are tough but edible.

The stomach (a hard sac near the head) and the intestinal vein (runs through middle of the underside of the tail meat) are not edible.

Break off the legs one at a time, insert the broken end in your mouth and suck out the contents – quietly.

Enjoy your lobster, and thanks for supporting Lobsterfest!