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Pan Fried LIVE
Lobster

How to cut up a LIVE
Lobster
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This is not for the faint hearted.
I'll admit it took me and my daughter Danielle about two weeks
of THINKING about doing this, and finally one night we said,
"okay, this is it"
Besides, fresh Lobsters were on sale LOL
Now we have been eating Lobsters FOR YEARS, it's one of
my family favorites (to either go out and eat them, or for me to
get a bunch of live ones and boil at home).
So far, no one really became screamish about being around
live Lobsters (altho I am usually the one who plops them in the
boiling water).
It's the "see no evil...." type of thing. They don't care HOW it's
done, they just don't want to SEE it being done.
On with the show....




















I cleaned out the sink and rinsed it with boiling water and put
the live lobsters in there.
Of course, Mr. Nosey, my pomeranian was around following
his 4 foot rule of staying out of the kitchen when I cook, but he
was curious and started yapping. He knew something strange
and unusual was up.
I made an exception and picked him up and showed him the
lobsters. When he saw them moving he freaked and wanted
absolutely NOTHING to do with what I was doing. He ran off to
get Danielle. My husband hid in the bedroom calling me a
lobster killer.

















I had read on the internet that one could partially "freeze" a
live lobster to "kill" it. So I took one of them, put a plastic bag
over it, grabbed the bag and flipped it over so he was inside
the bag. I tied the bag up and put it in the freezer, all in all
about 40 min.



















The other one, Danielle ran away while I did this.
I took a large sharp knife and jabbed it in at the point where
the body is separate from the tail and crunched the knife in.
I noticed that it was easier to do in the sink as it was lower
than a normal counter top, and hey, the drain was there too.
I kept pressing the knife in deeper to get it all the way through.
I'll admit it was somewhat hard to do this. I guess it all depends
on how tall you are.




















By now it was dead. So I turned it around and repeated the
process by taking the knife and cut open the tail in half.



















That last part at the end of the tail section was hard, so I used
my strong poultry sheers to cut through that.
I heard in the background from the peanut gallery that was
AFRAID to come into the kitchen, "Just boil them regular
style!!"
Chickens. Now I was on a roll.


















"
There it was. Deader than a doornail. See that green stuff? It's
the liver and digestive system called "the tomalley".
There's a large debate over eating this stuff, but I figured, I've
been eating it since I was a kid, so I just left it.
(My kids think I'm nutz, ask me if I care. It tastes good.




















Now when cutting up a live Lobster, especially for this recipe,
you need to yank out the claws and then boil them for 1 min.
Let it cool down for a minute or so.

By now Danielle was curious, so she came into the kitchen to
INSPECT.
I told her it was easy to do, but somewhat rough to cut through
the shell. It was. I mean, the Lobster didn't really put up a
FIGHT or anything, it's claws were spreading around during
the initial killing, but once I started, I had to finish.
She said she didn't think she could cut up a
LIVE one, but agreed that we cold boil one for
a minute to kill it, and then she would cut it up.
I figured as much from the get go, and already
had a giant pot of water boiling.





























She (again) said, "Why don't we just boil it
regular, all the way?"
I said, "If I can do it, so can you."
Now, ALWAYS pick up a live Lobster on it's
back, keeping your hands and fingers away
from it's tail. The tail can snap, and it does.
It's claws will also open up and spread apart,
so it helps to be quick about plopping it into
the water, UNLIKE Danielle who took her
sweet time shooting these pix, as AGAIN, I'm
the designated "lobster killer".














See how it's tail is snapping away? And it's
claws spreading apart?
Oh get real. If you didn't even LIKE the way
Lobster tasted, you wouldn't even be reading
this LOLOLOL














I think she PURPOSELY took her time
shooting these jpegs as the Lobster was
wiggling around and I was YELLING at her to
hurry up!!
Always put a live Lobster into the pot of boiling
water head/claws first. Then just drop in.
To kill it took 1 min. I removed with tongs.

Now if you're REALLY afraid of cutting up a
live Lobster, then do it this way. Again, you've
probably already had boiled Live Lobsters for
dinner somewhere at some time, so when it's
dead, then maybe for you it's easier to cut up.















I used this same pot of boiling water to boil my
fresh "live" claws for one minute as well.















TA DA. It's dead, and only partially cooked.
Now she had no choice BUT TO PROCEED
muhahahaha















i told her to kind of crack it's back to
straighten out it's tail.
I figured she would want to do it on the kitchen table, so I
had lined almost the whole thing with waxed paper, which
was a good idea as it turned out to be messy.
I think it was easier for me to do it in the sink, but she is
shorter than me. Again, it does take some strength to cut
through these shells with a knife.
She turned out to be a pro. She was hacking and cutting
away like she'd been doing it all her life. I had to step back
and away from her chopping.
Mr. Nosey was hiding in the bedroom with my husband.
They never emerged for the rest of the evening. MORE
FOR US!!!

















See that skinny part of the shell? That's the part you have
to wiggle around to try to get the claw meat out.


































If you've ever eaten a whole Lobster, then you know it's hit
or miss. Point is to get all the meat out. If this doesn't
work.....



















You can always HACK it with a knife like Danielle did.
Actually, I think she liked hacking away.
I like to take my time when I cook, I consider it a type of
therapy. Once she was dealing with her Lobster she was a
whirling dervish with the knife. YIPES



































She then continued to cut up like I did with the live Lobster
Now she was on a roll.


















She cut the tail sections off, and removed "that
green stuff"
I saved the "green stuff" and plopped into MY
sauce.


















She scooped it out with a spoon and put it in a
small ramekin for me and told me to REMOVE it
from her sight. More tomalley for meeeeeee
















She elected to HACK off the tinier claws, you can
do this, or just pull them out if you want. I left mine
on my Lobster.

































She then cut off the head. (I'll tell ya, she was
almost desparete to eat. HACK HACK HACK,
BOOM BOOM BOOM)
Guess we'll be making her sauce first.


















What a mess. Thank God I used waxed paper. See
that metal bowl on over to the right? I save ALL my
shells and make a nice Seafood broth for my
Bouillabaise.
She set her claw meat off to the side, and then
plopped her body and tail meat into one of my large
saute pans. I wrapped up in Ziplock all the shells,
and then all I had to do was just gather the
"remains of the day" on waxed paper and toss.
















Now with a bit of Butter and Olive Oil, saute for one
minute under high flame the body and the tails. The
tails may cook faster than the body, you can tell if
they are almost done because the tails will curl up.
Have a plate handy to remove if this happens.
You should have a preheated oven set to 400 or
450*F. Lobster meat cut up like this cooks fast. Now
we want to bake it for 1 min.
















h

When we did it, it dissipated all of the Butter and
Olive Oil. So when we removed it, we just added a
pinch more.

NOTE: If you don't have an oven proof saute pan,
with tongs, remove Lobster to baking pan, and then
put BACK into saute pan. Retaining those juices is
important. I used an oven safe saute pan, and the
juices were depleted, so I had to replace them. Of
course with my pan, the handle was HOT, so I
always kept a hot plate glove over the handle.
Now is the time to add all that removed Claw
meat.
















Rehydrate with more Oil and Butter saute for 1 min
more then add a shot of Brandy.
















Now, if you've never flambeed before, then just
pour a shot of Brandy into a PLASTIC cup (we
don't want shattered glass or even the possibility of
it)!!!!!
I've been flambeeing for years, so it's second
nature to me. Until you get used to it, use a plastic
cup when you pour it in. Regardless, after pouring
in, REMOVE AND SET ASIDE THE BOTTLE
Tilt the pan AFTER pouring it in, into the flame---
















and stand back. Let the flame dissipate.

NOTE: If using electric range top, light a spaghetti
noodle and keep a small flame going on, pour
Brandy, then tip the lit spaghetti noodle into the
sauce.































As my oldest daughter Genevieve said when she
saw these jpegs, "Boy, you killed it alive or boiled
it, then baked it, then burned it in fire. You really
killed it."
My son waltzed into my room while I was doing this
web site and slide show and called me a LOBSTER
KILLER and that the Animal Rights Group would be
contacting me. Lobster is not an animal though, it's
seafood, and how does that differ from going
fishing, scaling, filetting and pan frying???
Everybody is so picky over this, but in the end,
THEY TOO WILL EAT IT
They just don't want to see HOW it's done.

















Just to add a bit of sweetness to the Brandy
flambe, I tossed in a bit of dry white wine.
















Dip your finger into the sauce and taste. If it needs
more Butter, add a few slices, and when it's melted,
it's done.
So from start to finish I would say each of these
took no more than 20 minutes.
Would I do it again? Sure. I think it was just the
frightening thought of doing it that I needed to get
over the hurdle about.
NOTE:
Oh yeah, the SUPPOSEDLY frozen Lobster.
After doing all of this, a good 40 min or more passed.
I had removed that Lobster, and it was STILL "slightly"
alive, as though "stunned".
By this time, Danielle was almost "used" to all of this,
and we just cut apart like I did from the get go.

Danielle just wanted her Lobster plain, flambeed etc.,
however I added some very finely chopped Shallots to
mine as well as a sprinkling of Tarragon.
All in all, we MIGHT do this again or not.
I will however be very self assured that I can clear a
room if I DO decide to do it this way again. HA