To Boil Lobsters
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the water
Bring 1 gallon of water to a fast boil.
Add 5 ounces of coarse sea salt to the boiling water.
Boil the lobster
For a moderate sized lobster, boil for 15 to 20 minutes.
For a large lobster, boil for 30 to 40 minutes.
For a very large lobster, boil for 1 hour or more.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Lobster
- Provides the main protein, whose texture firms and turns opaque as it cooks.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the cooking water so the lobster meat is lightly flavored from the start.
The step that matters
Boil for time matched to lobster size. Cooking time depends on the lobster's size. Too short leaves the meat undercooked and unsafe, while too long makes the proteins tight and rubbery.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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