Every year, thousands of folks come to places like this all over New England and Maritime
Canada.
They come to relax and renew old acquaintances, enjoy the laid-back lifestyle, and listen
to local characters like me.
They go on motor trips, taking in the local scenery with its snug harbors, rocky shores,
sandy beaches, and panoramic views.
Or they set out on a boat trip around spruce-covered islands, watching the marine life.
Some spend a week or two.
Some stay all summer.
While they're here, though, more than anything else, people want to eat lobster.
Hi there, folks.
My name's Alan Smith.
I'll be your host throughout this video, and yes, I really do talk like this all the time,
so listen close.
We're here to educate you about lobsters.
You'll climb aboard a real working lobster boat and see how lobsters are called.
After a cooking lesson in the kitchen, we'll move to the dining room, where I'll teach
you how to easily pick out all the meat out of a lobster.
I'll bet you you'll find it easy in swatting a black claw.
Finally, we'll come back for a real down-ease lobster feed here at the beach, where a lobster
really tastes the best.
Nobody knows for sure just how long lobster's been around.
They look like some kind of prehistoric critter, and maybe millions of years ago, their ancestors
nibbled the toes of an occasional tyrannosaurus.
Old log books tell of catching many good and great lobsters.
Just how big were these lobsters?
Down-easters defined a large lobster as being about four feet long and weighing about 45
pounds.
Imagine tying into one of them some night for supper.
In times gone by, lobsters were so plentiful, one could just wade out into shore water and
gather up enough to satisfy even the hungriest of in-laws.
Sometimes after a big storm, lobsters would litter the beaches, and folks would gather
them up in buckets or even wagon loads and use them for hog feed or fertilizer.
Things sure have changed a lot since then.
Is that right, Mike?
Right.
Hey, Larry?
Right.
Mind if I come aboard?
No problem.
Captain Mike Sherman and sternman Larry Staples fish for lobsters off Naskig Point on the
coast of Maine.
Mike's family has a long tradition in the lobstering business.
My father went lobstering before me, my grandfather before him, and I've been since I was ten
years old.
I love it, love the independence of it and the way of life, and sometimes I even make
money.
While we're aboard Michael's lobster boat, Dream On, we're going to get a proper education
about catching lobsters.
This right here is a crusher claw.
This is what you call a right-handed lobster.
This is a pincher claw on his left hand, and this lobster here has his crusher claw on
his left hand, so he's a left-handed lobster.
So they're just like people, left and right-handed.
Right.
Now what do they do with each claw?
Each one looks different.
They must do something different with them.
The crusher claw is just like its name.
It crushes the food, and then he takes it to the pincher claw and rips it and shreds
it.
Now, the difference between a male and a female is these swimmerets right here.
On this lobster, it's hard and firm.
This is a male lobster, and on the female, they're smaller and softer.
I say, I say.
After hauling the lobsters aboard and baiting the trap, Mike selects his part and drops
it overboard.
Larry bends the lobster's claws to keep him from feuding.
Lobsters basically don't like each other.
They'll kill each other and eat each other because they're cannibals.
They probably don't like your fingers down in there either.
No, and that's yet to keep my fingers from getting bit.
When lobstering in Maine, if a fisherman pulls up an egg-bearing female, it's law that the
tail be notched and the lobster thrown back.
This notch signals other fishermen to let the female go, which helps preserve the species.
Each lobster is measured.
Lobsters that are too small are thrown back, and lobsters that are too big?
Now there's a lobster.
Well, lobsters that are oversized are put back too.
After a long day of hauling traps, Mike and Larry head into the wharf to sell their catch.
These fresh-mean lobsters are ready for macking.
When you get to market to buy lobsters, up until about the 4th of July, or about the
time of the second hatching of mosquitoes, you should see just one price listed.
But shortly after, you might see two prices, one for hide shell and one for soft shell.
Soft shell will be the cheaper of the two.
But remember here, don't just be thinking about how much padding you can leave in your
wallet.
A soft shell lobster won't have as much meat in him.
You see, he just shed his old shell so he could grow a bit.
He's going to have quite a bit of water in him, especially in the claws.
But let me tell you something right here.
That meat's going to be a lot sweeter and a lot easier to get at too.
So remember, a hide shell lobster is more expensive, has more meat, and is harder to
crack.
A soft shell lobster is cheaper, has less meat, is easier to open, and they usually
taste sweeter.
Either way, they're wicked good eating.
Now let's get home and cook these critters up.
There's more ways to cook a lobster than a porcupine's got quills.
I'm going to get my official hat on here.
I'm going to show you the easiest way, considered by most to be the best.
You want to start with a proper sized kettle.
If you're cooking just a few lobsters, a pot like this will do, and you don't need a five
gallon bucket of water.
An inch or two of water in the kettle is all you need.
Of course, if you're feeding the in-laws and you know they haven't ate since last week
when you invited them over, you need a bigger kettle.
Cover up the pot with the heat on high and bring the water to a boil.
It's wise to have a pair of tongs and a pothole as a mince.
You might want to keep them tongs handy to keep Uncle Harry from going for his third
lobster before everyone else has finished it first.
When your water's boiling, grab the lobster by the body here and plunk him right in.
They will move around a bit, but recent studies have shown that since the lobsters don't really
have a brain, they don't feel no pain.
Keep the burner on high until the water begins to boil again.
You want to watch carefully and adjust the heat or slide the cover off a bit to keep
the pot from boiling over.
Now I realize in this day, fit, and trim world we live in, a lot of folks are watching what
they eat.
Now if you're concerned about calories and fat and cholesterol and a lot of them other
things I can't even pronounce, I got some news for you.
Lobster's not only good, it's good for you.
A one pound boiled lobster has about a hundred calories,.6 grams of fat, and very few cholesterol.
Amazing but true.
Now if you're like me, you like your lobster lathered right up and milled butter, but if
you go easy on the butter, you won't have to worry about poking an extra hole in your
mouth.
If you want a nice healthy meal, try a lobster with a baked potato, an Erakon, a tossed salad.
You'll have a great low calorie meal and you won't have to jog ten miles or cut pulpwood
for a week to work it all off.
Let's go check on them lobsters.
The easiest way to tell if they're done is pull an antenna.
If the antenna doesn't come right out, you better go toss the salad a little and give
them a few more minutes.
Now let's try these fellows again.
If the antenna comes out on the first or second try, you better get the butter milled and
wake up Uncle Herrick as it's time to commence with the eating part right now.
When you're out eating lobsters with a beautiful dining companion, you want to know what's
doing whether you're formal or casual.
You don't want to look like a caveman trying to get into your lobster.
There are a few tactics you can use to keep the flying shells and juice from going all
over your sweet heart.
You'll need a good supply of napkins, a set of nutcrackers, a pick and a bowl to put your
shells in.
You also might want to put on one of these splatter catchers.
Now the first thing you want to do is break the lobster apart so it'll cool down a bit.
Let me show you this, sort of a road map of a lobster.
These are the parts we'll be working on.
Let's start by breaking off the claws.
Just muckle right onto them and pull down away from the body and they'll come right
off.
Now grab onto the tail with one hand and the body with the other.
Bend them back and forth like this and the tail piece should come right off.
Next, break off the crawlers.
Since the crawlers are small and will cool off the quickest, you ought to eat them first.
Before I show you how to eat these at the dinner table, I'm going to teach you a little
trick if you're just picking out your lobster for one of your favorite recipes.
To quickly remove the meat from the crawlers, remove the knuckles from each crawler.
Lay one down like this.
Take a rolling pin and with a bit of pressure, roll up the meat.
Take your other crawlers and do the same thing.
They're pretty easy, huh?
And there's a lot of meat in there too.
Now to eat one of these without a rolling pin, let's take a closer look at one.
There are three joints.
Break the first joint here.
Using your teeth, work out the meat with the same principle as with the rolling pin.
Do this with all three sections of the crawler.
If you're out to a fancy restaurant, no need to worry.
This is a perfectly proper thing to do.
Now that we've had an appetizer, let's move on to the main course.
Since the body and tail sections are large in the claws, they'll be the last cool off.
So let's tackle them claws.
The first thing we'll do is take the rubber bands off.
You can see there are three separate sections before the claw.
Each section has to be broken at the joint.
To break each joint, always pull toward you.
Always start at the small end, opposite the claw itself.
Pull toward you.
Sometimes a little piece of meat will pull right out.
If it doesn't, just take your pick and dig it out.
Now break off the next section.
Again, always break toward you.
If you break away from you, you may get introduced to these pointy little things here.
They'll get your attention to hurry if you stick one into you.
Slide your pick in this side and plop the meat right out.
Do the last section the same way.
Snap it off and dive in with that pick.
You ready to tackle them claws?
I've been ready.
Before you crack the claw, you've got to break off this small part.
Pull it out like this and break down.
Try to break just this side, then pull it back like this.
Now take those crackers and put the claw right in there, right close to where the small piece
broke off.
Give it a good squeeze.
Once you get it cracked, break the rest of it toward you.
You're trying to do two different things here.
You want to pull the meat out of the shell and pull this cartilage from the claw.
If it's done right, the claw meat will come out in one piece.
If not, just use your pick to get the rest out.
You can scuff this white stuff off with your fingers or a pick.
You can leave it right there and eat it, it won't hurt you none.
Now with the experience you're gaining, the other side ought to go a bit easier.
Sometimes the last section can be a little difficult to break off because you don't have
much to hang on to.
If you can't break it off, there's a couple of ways to do it.
If you want the most finesse, you'll use your crackers to help you along.
Let's get to that last claw.
When you break this small piece off, you may find meat or cartilage didn't come out.
To get to the meat, simply use your pick.
To get to the cartilage, first crack the claw.
You may have to crack it a couple of times.
Then reach right in here and pull it out.
If you're not too concerned over proper etiquette, or you're in a casual atmosphere, or you're
just meeting out your lobster for one of your favorite recipes, there is another way to
do them knuckles, and the only tools you need are the ones you was born with.
Break the joint the same way as before.
If the meat doesn't come out, you can cheat a little by using this part of the claw as
a pick.
Take this next section, and instead of using your pick, use your finger to push it out.
Like I was telling you before, if you can't break off this little piece and you don't
have a set of crackers, I got the solution to your problem.
Grab onto the claw and bear right down on that last section.
Taking advantage of leverage will allow you to snap it off real easy.
Once you get the last piece broke off, just take your little pinky and push the meat right
out.
A word of warning though, don't let it hit the edge of your plate when it snaps, or Uncle
Harry will have more lobster juice on his face than he usually does.
Well, it's time to take on the ball deck.
This is the part most folks find difficult, but it's really quite simple.
The trick is to expose the meat in a way that makes it easy to pluck out.
First, I'll show you how to do it with a knife in the kitchen.
Since you can't take a big knife with you at the beach, I'll show you how to do it
with a hand too.
Pull the body apart like this.
Sometimes you'll find some meat right here.
More often than not, this will come out with a tail section.
Make sure you look, because you might end up missing it.
Now there's one other edible fat here, the lobster's liver, commonly known as the Tom
Alley.
Some people don't eat it, but others consider it the best part of the lobster.
In this part, all the meat is on either side of something.
To expose the meat, take your knife and cut each side away from the middle.
Then pick out all the meat between the pieces of catfish.
There's no set way of doing this, you just gotta play it by ear.
When you get all the pieces out of one half, do the same for the other half.
Let's try it again here at the dining room table without using the knife.
Once you've got the body ready, you gotta try to break it as close to the way you cut
it as you can.
Once it's broken, pick out all the meat the way I talked to you before.
Doing the other side can be a little more difficult, because you don't have as much
to hang on to.
You may have to do a little to a time.
If you can't get it all out while you're in the learning stage, you've got a good
excuse to go get another lobster to practice on.
Now we'll get to my favorite part, the tail section.
We'll start by snapping off these flippers.
I bet you even most of you experienced lobster eaters don't realize there's meat in them.
Break each pair of flippers off like so.
Hold on to a pair with your thumb on this center pad.
Slowly break the flipper away.
While you're doing this, squeeze at the same time to help push out the meat.
Next do the other side like this.
Now pull the center piece apart and out pops the whole kit and caboodle.
If they don't come out, let your teeth help you just like the crawlers.
Now let's do the big part of the tail.
Pick up the tail in one hand and with your finger, push that tail meat right out of its
shell.
If you want to show more etiquette, you can use a fork instead of your finger.
Now if you see orange stuff like this, that's called raw and is only found in females.
Some folks eat it, but I eat one of them.
You got one more operation to do before putting that dandy piece of lobster meat in the box.
Pull this back strip off the rest of the tail meat.
You'll notice this little vein that runs down the middle.
This is the lobster's, how do I say this gracefully?
Just discharge shoe and it's not one of the more desirable portions of the meal.
I usually split the tail right in two like this.
It makes it easier, don't get the bottom.
If you want to use a little better manners, you might cut your lobster meat up into bite
sized pieces and then use your fork or pick to dunk it into the bar.
Now I got one more thing to show you.
Let's go to the cutting board again.
If the tail is jam packed full of meat and difficult to get out with your finger or fork,
try giving it a good squeeze.
You'll hear the shell breaker part.
Do this down the whole tail.
When there ain't any resistance, pull the shell away.
Do you remember the meat we found earlier in the bar deck?
This is where it usually ends up.
I guess you could say we've come to the tail end of the video.
Now I don't expect you to become an old pro overnight.
Take the time and practice what I showed you.
There ain't nothing to it.
Well that's about it folks, I hope you've enjoyed this video and learned a lot about
the lobster.
How they're caught, cooked and picked out.
If you ever get a chance, you ought to try to enjoy lobster where it tastes best, right
on the beach.
You can forget the necktie, fancy doves, and you can use a plier to get the lobster.
The lobster's raw for cracking shells.
There's an old saying that a person's going to eat a peck of dirt in their lifetime, and
you might just get a portion of that right here.
Now like a lobsterman says, to the lobsters that ain't big enough to keep, I'll catch
you later.
Hey, I could eat just one more lobster.
Hey, I could eat just one more lobster.
Hey, I could eat just one more lobster.
Hey, I could eat just one more lobster.
Hey, I could eat just one more lobster.