Two Days To Celebrate Lobster!
Lobster lovers, rejoice! Maine senators passed a bill in 2014 that established a holiday recognizing lobster’s place in American history and culture with National Lobster Day on September 25th! National Lobster Day recognizes not only the lobster’s status as a prized delicacy the world over, but the hard work and dedication of the lobstermen that catch the 120 million pounds of it each year in the U.S. Lobster is not just a Maine tradition, but an American family tradition, and has had a major impact on the economies in coastal regions.
Lobster Trivia:
- Lobster was once so cheap and plentiful that most people turned their noses up at it. The first settlers in the United States ate lobster only when food was scarce. During Colonial times, lobster was fed to prisoners, slaves, and servants.
- Lobster almost certainly made an appearance at the very first Thanksgiving feast in 1621. It was so abundant that you only needed to walk along the beach and pick them up. In those days, lobsters sometimes washed ashore in two-foot-tall drifts.
- Modern lobstermen have a language all their own. One-pound lobsters are called “chickens,” female lobsters are referred to as “hens,” and lobsters without claws are called “pistols.”
- Lobsters are arthropods, a category that includes ants, spiders, scorpions, and even cockroaches (!), which is why Maine lobsterman call them “bugs”! Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, which includes crabs, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles.
- According to the Maine Department of Marine Resources, the record for the largest documented lobster goes to one caught in 1977 off the coast of Nova Scotia, weighing in at 44 pounds, 6 ounces. It was estimated to be 100 years old.
- Nutritionally, studies show that 3 1/2 ounces of lobster meat (without the butter) contains only 90 calories, 24 grams of protein, is high in selenium, contains omega-3 fatty acids, and while it does contain 72 mg of cholesterol, that amount comes in less than the same size serving of chicken (85 mg).
- There are no Red Lobster restaurants in Maine.
How to Eat a Whole Lobster
Eating steamed lobster means that you have to be willing to dig in and get your hands (and clothes) dirty. There’s a reason many restaurants provide a bib and plenty of Wet Naps®! If you’ve never eaten a whole lobster before, you’ll quickly find that the messy work comes with a delicious reward. Here’s how it’s done:
Have a large bowl handy to put the shells in, and to catch the water that will drain out of the claws once you get working.
Before you get started, the first optional step is to turn the lobster over and tell your fellow diners whether your lobster is a male or female. Females always have a rectangular plate between the second pair of legs.
- Step 1: Twist and pull to remove the claws where they connect to the torso. You can then take the sections leading up to the claw to find the small bits of meat inside (some use a small, narrow “pick” tool).
- Step 2: With a nutcracker, hammer or pliers, crack each claw. Then use your finger or fork to push the claw meat out through the wide opening on the opposite end of the claw. You can use your hands to snap off the smaller claw hinge first. Be sure to check everywhere for bits of meat inside it!
- Step 3: Separate the tail from the body by gently arching the back until it cracks.
- Step 4: To get to the tail meat, start by removing the flippers from the end of the tail.
- Step 5: Insert a fork or your finger in the narrow end of the tail (where you removed the flippers) and push the meat out through the opposite end of the tail.
- Step 6: Take apart the lobster’s body by pulling the top shell away from it. You’ll be able to get at the “tomalley” (which is the liver; not everyone is a fan) any bits of meat that you find, and the roe if the lobster is an egg-bearing female.
- Step 7: Open the remaining part of the body by cracking it apart. There are limited amounts of meat in this part but still some good eating!
- Step 8: Tackle the smaller claws by sucking the meat out like a straw.
Other Ways To Celebrate Lobster Day
Why not cook up some of these mouth watering lobster recipes?
- Lobster Stew
- Lobster Roll
- Lobster BLT
- Chopped Vegetable and Lobster Salad
Interested in learning the best way to cook a lobster yourself? Check out this link.
Check out these mouth-watering lobster recipes!
With contributions from freelance writer Amber Kanuckel.
