The Best Way to Cook and Shell a Lobster - Kitchen Conundrums with Thomas Joseph

lobsters they're one of my favorite things but they are intimidating to a lot of people are you unsure of how to cook them how to take the meat out of the shell well today i'm going to show you just how to do that it's really simple i'm going to start here with some steamed lobsters now if you're a fan of boiling lobsters i'm going to need you to stop doing that right now because the water gets into the shell or through the shell and into the meat and that gives you a diluted flavor all that wonderful lobster flavor it kind of leaches out into the water so it's better if you steam them in a large pot like this with maybe an inch of water these are two one and a half pound lobsters i have here and once you remove them from the pot what you're going to do is you're going to take a pair of kitchen scissors here and trim off the very end of the claw any moisture that's in the shell kind of drips out so when you bring this to the table for your guests or if you're gonna take the meat out of the shell in your kitchen like i'm doing here today there will be less mess and also you won't burn yourself with all that hot water hot liquid it's just taking a pair of kitchen scissors and just trimming off the very end of the claw you can also remove the rubber bands at this stage and you can see how much liquid is actually draining out of the lobster so now it's time to take the meat out of the shell now one thing that i didn't mention is that if you're in the south or if you're in a warmer climate you might find the cousin of this traditional cold water lobster with claws and that is the spiny lobster it's called the spiny lobster because the shell right here is really spiny it's also called a rock lobster in other places and there are no claws the meat in the tail is really what you're looking for here it's a little bit tougher in texture than their cold water cousins but they're perfectly delicious especially if you're on the beach now to start with the lobster what you should do is remove the claws so take the claw and you're going to twist and separate the claw and the knuckle which is this portion here right from the base of the body so again you're going to twist and remove the claw in one big piece so now to separate the claw from the knuckle all you have to do is give it a good twist now if your lobsters are hard shell like this it depends on the season of the year you can use one of these towels to help you so you don't kind of hurt your hands and now to take the meat out you can use one of these crackers here these are really helpful in breaking through that tough shell but i like to use the back of my chef's knife and at the widest part of the claw you're going to give it a good whack so once you break through the shell slightly i like to turn the claw over and do it again so once you crack into the shell you should be able to release the end of the shell here exposing the meat and then you're going to take the thumb of the claw as i like to call it and you're going to pull back until you hear it break and then give it a twist you can fish that out with one of these picks just like that and then the meat from the claw should easily come out and there you go a beautiful piece of lobster now to separate the tail from the body you're going to again twist in opposite directions so just a slight twist like that you should be able to pull the tail away from the body now to take the tail meat out in one nice beautiful piece i like to use a pair of scissors and i cut down the center of the underside you don't want to go too far in because you don't want to mark up your meat too much now sometimes what you can do if you have a softer shell lobster which are called shedders because they're shedding their skin so they're a little softer you can sometimes just use your hands and pull in opposite directions and it will break the tail open these are such hard shell lobsters that this really helps using the scissors here so cut down the center and then you should be able to put pressure on each of the sides here and open the shell up just like that and then you should have one nice beautiful lobster tail just like that and now if you're really a lobster enthusiast and you like this this um this green part here this is actually the liver of the lobster and it's called the tamale now it has a salty briny really intense rich lobster flavor and a lot of people like it but if you don't you can discard the tamale and the rest of the shell here there is some meat in and around here but you just have to kind of pick through it so there you go with a little bit of patience and also a little bit of practice you will be cooking and shelling your lobsters like a pro enjoy guys you

Channel: Everyday Food

Views: 543,906

Keywords: Recipe, Recipes, Cooking, Cook, Food, Dinner, Easy meal, Dinner tonight, Everyday Food, Home made, Sarah Carey, Martha Stewart, Family meal, easy cooking, how to, food ideas, quick dinners, fast recipes, easy recipes, quick recipes

Id: Q0GMaMaPiZY

Length: 5min 20sec (320 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 14 2016