A Classic American Dish

November 26, 2009 in Food and Drink | 2 comments

You’ve got to love a recipe that starts out like this:

A classic American dish, this preparation takes full advantage of every delicious bit of the lobster.

Kill with a knife, [see page] 491,
     3 lobsters (1 1/2 pounds each)
When they are still, separate the tail and …  

From Joy of Cooking
recipe for Lobster Newburg

On page 491, it does indeed tell you exactly how to kill a lobster by stabbing it in the neck.  It even gives you this handy tip:

[After stabbing the lobster], to avoid muscular contractions, you can put the lobster in the freezer for a few minutes until it is still.

And no, I haven’t tried it yet.  Maybe next Thanksgiving…

  1. Julie on November 26, 2009 at 10:34 am

    My dad used to throw live lobsters into a pot of boiling water. They’d go in bluish-gray (and wiggling) and come out bright red (and not wiggling).

  2. Amy on November 26, 2009 at 10:36 am

    Yeah, that’s the only way I’ve ever known to deal with lobsters. I had never heard of killing them with a knife first! I’ve done the boiling water and that’s emotionally traumatic enough for me.