Full Steam Ahead! How to Steam Lobsters
by admin ~ April 19th, 2009. Filed under: East Coast Recipes, Maine Lobster Recipes |
Print
Two popular ways to cook fresh lobsters is boiling and steaming. Charlie’s favorite way to cook lobsters is steaming. All you need is a good size pot, water, salt (preferably sea salt), unsalted butter, and the Maine ingredient-fresh lobsters.
Make sure you pick out a mad lobster. It’s easy to find one; it’s the lobster who will raise its claws and flap its tail. The mad, feisty lobster will be the freshest lobster! It’s best to cook lobsters the day your receive them. You can keep a good hard-shell lobster alive for a day or two in the coldest part of your refrigerator, usually the bottom shell.
Why steam lobsters, rather than boil them? Charlie prefers steaming lobster because he says it makes less of a mess and cooks up a more tender lobster than boiling. Steaming lobster preserves the ocean fresh taste of lobster. Since steaming cooks lobster a little slower, there is less of a chance of overcooking. It’s a good choice if your cooking lobster for the first time. Cooking for a big group? You can find out how to boil lobsters here.
If you are just cooking a couple of lobsters, a 3-4 gallon soup or pasta pot will do the job. If you are cooking a bunch of lobsters you can get a larger pot or steam your lobsters in batches. Just make sure the lid goes on tight to keep in the steam. A steamer rack is not a necessity. It just keeps the lobsters from getting charred on the bottom of the pot. You can use an vegetable steamer rack inside the pot or an upside colander.
Now for the all-important cooking times. The first rule of cooking lobsters-do not overcook. Second rule-do not overcook your lobsters. For soft-shell lobsters you might want to subtract a minute or two from the cooking times.
Directions for Steamed Lobsters
To steam live lobster: Fill pot so that water comes up sides about two inches. Add 2 tablespoons of salt for each quart of water. If you have sea salt-even better. Bring the water to a rolling boil, and put in lobsters, one at a time. ( Feel free to use a steaming rack to place the lobsters on or just add directly to the pot.) Bring water to a rolling boil over high heat. Place lobsters in the pot (head first), cover tightly, return to a boil as quickly as possible and start counting the time.
Steam a lobster for 12 minutes per pound, for the first pound. Add 3 minutes per pound for each additional pound thereafter. See chart below for approximate cooking times. Regulate the heat if the froth starts to bubble over.
Steaming Lobster-Cooking Times
Lobster Weight: Cooking Time
1 lb.-1-1/4 lbs. 10-12 minutes
1-1/2 lb. 12-14 minutes
2 lbs. 16-18 minutes
2-1/2-3 lb. 18-20 minutes
5 lb. 20-24 minutes
Lobsters are done when the outer shell is bright red and when the meat is white, not opaque. Again, DO NOT overcook your lobsters. Carefully remove lobsters from the pot with tongs. Be careful, they are very hot. Note: Your lobsters will continue to cook a little after you take them out of the pot. To stop the cooking process, place your steamed lobsters in a bowl of ice before cracking. Now just melt the butter. You can get fancy and whisk in a little lemon juice in your butter. Now dig in!
October 18th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Do you add the total of all the lobsters in one pot? like if you are going to cook say four 2 pounders would you cook the time for 8 pounds? I am guessing yes.?
October 18th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
That’s a great question! Actually no– the key is to regulate your lobster cooking temperature. So your lobster cooking time would be about the same as long as you maintain the boiling or steaming temperature. Again, you may need to add a couple of minutes to your cooking time if the temperature is not hot enough. A big mistake is in cooking more than one lobster in a pot, is add too many minutes to the cooking time. The result: tough and rubbery lobsters.
November 15th, 2009 at 12:47 am
I always steam lobsters, but there is a messy problem: once the liquid from the lobster gets into the boiling water is causes the whole thing to boil over. I have tried less water and more water and there is no difference. Is there any way to avoid this??
November 21st, 2009 at 8:20 pm
I gues I dont understand your answer. Is the cooking time per lobster or the sum of all.
November 22nd, 2009 at 12:26 am
It is per lobster. You do not want to add up the total weight of all the lobsters.
After you put all your lobsters in the pot and bring the water back to a rolling boil you start timing. You want enough water in the pot so the temperature doesn’t drop much below the boil when you put your lobster in. Your lobster will cook faster the more water you have boiling (surface area and mass to heat ratio rules apply here). If you cannot maintain your boiling temperature, you will need to add a few minutes to the cooking time.
November 22nd, 2009 at 12:57 am
Roger, are you talking about boiling lobster or steaming lobster? If you steam lobster it should not have a boil over.
Boil overs are common when boiling lobster. You really have to keep an eye on the stove and regular the heat. Make sure you do not have water all the way to the brim of the pot. In the final few minutes you can also crack the lid to allow the steam to escape.
December 3rd, 2009 at 3:27 am
Hello could you explain the prepping to crack, post steaming? Do I leave them whole and is there a vein to remove ( like prawns)
Thank you
Lisa in Alaska
December 3rd, 2009 at 5:40 am
First question— what is your favorite Crab from Alaska? Here are some basics for enjoying your cooked lobster. Don’t forget the melted butter!
Crackin’ Into and Eating Your Cooked Lobster
1. Remove lobsters with tongs and place in a colander to drain.
2. The head and intestines are not edible. Now twist off the claws, crack each claw and knuckle with a nut cracker. Remove the meat.
3. Separate the tail from the body and break off the tail flippers. Extract the meat from each flipper then insert a fork and push the tail meat out in one piece. Remove and discard the black vein that runs the entire length of the tail meat.
4. Separate the shell of the body from the underside by pulling them apart. The green substance is called the tomalley, the green tomalley is the liver of the lobster, some consider it a delicacy: it is used in sauces.
5. Open the underside of the body by cracking it apart in the middle, with the small walking legs on either side. Extract the meat from the leg joints and the legs themselves
December 27th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
[...] may help. How to Steam Lobster like a Real Mainer-Steaming Lobsters 101 | East Coast Gourmet Blog If I'm doing a clambake (8-10 people), I have a 15 gallon pot I take out back and fill with [...]
April 20th, 2010 at 9:56 pm
Hi, I have a question.
I only have a 12 quart stockpot, and I want to cook about 6 lobsters (1.5 lbs each). Do you think I can cook 3 of them at once, and do it twice? Or will that already be too crowded? And how much do you think the cooking time should be? Please help me…
Thank you!
Jane
April 20th, 2010 at 10:08 pm
You will be fine with cooking 3 lobsters at a time in your pot. For hard-shell lobsters we suggest about 10-12 minutes for each batch. Once the first batch is cooked — drain. plate and cover with tin foil to keep warm (note-your lobsters will continue to cook) & serve with your second batch. Happy cracking!
April 21st, 2010 at 7:58 pm
Wow! Thanks for such a quick + helpful response! One last question… Can I steam? Or would it be safer to just boil them? I heard it is difficult to steam when lobsters are on top of each other. Is that true…?
Thanks!
Jane
May 13th, 2010 at 1:21 am
Can I steam 2 ( up to 2 lbs. each ) lobsters in a 5 quart pot at the same time?
Thanks,
Laura
May 29th, 2010 at 4:45 am
I am cooking 12 lobsters. I am having them shipped from Maine to Montana. I will be picking them up a few hours before I am going to cook them. Will I need to refridgerate them or can I just keep them in their packaged box until cooking?
Also, I want to steam my lobsters. How big of a pot do I need to get? I am thinking of going to the local school to borrow a big pot. What do you suggest? I am used to cooking lobsters on the back shore in Maine over a fire so this is going to be odd cooking indoor on a stove.
Thanks for your help!
Lori
May 29th, 2010 at 5:10 am
First, we wish you would have had your live lobsters shipped from us. Live Lobsters from East Coast Gourmet. In any case, we are here to help!
First, if lobsters are kept in the box too long, they may not survive for an extended period of time. They need to breath.
If you have room in your refrigerator– unpack your order and put your lobsters in brown paper bags with the wet newspaper or seaweed they were packed in. NOT plastic bags (again you do not want to suffocate your live lobsters). Keep them in the lower shelves of your refrigerator because that’s the coldest.
If you do not no have room in your refrigerator you can simply open your lobster box and remove the lid. Put a bag of ice on top being careful not to crush or damage the lobsters. Note — keep the ice in the bag! You can even double bag it. Lobsters do not like fresh water. Keep your lobster box(s) in a cool place.
As far as cooking your lobsters, it is not necessary to have a giant cooking pot. You can cook your lobster in two smaller pots or cook them in two batches. Lobsters cook quickly. Be sure to check our post on how to boil live lobsters. Have a great Memorial Day lobster bake!
May 29th, 2010 at 5:50 am
It will be a little tight. You might want to go with an 8 quart pot to be on the safe side. You want the lobsters to fit in the pot and have a little room. Again, to steam lobsters, you only need to add about 2-3 inches of water to your pot. When boiling lobster, allow 2 1/2 quarts of water for each lobster.
July 5th, 2010 at 5:50 am
Roger, I had the same boil over (really its frothing over) problem. I put 1 inch of water at the bottom of a pot that is 8 inches high. I placed in the steaming aperatus (probably pushed the water up another half inch). After the water boils and I put one lobster in, if covered it froths over. The only remedy I found for this was to reduce the stove temperature to medium heat and open the lid every 30 seconds to reduce the water bubbles (also loses all the steam). This seemed to still cook the lobsters ok, but it a pretty intensive process. Reducing the heat to simmer seams to help reduce the froth, but I was pretty uncomfortable cooking my lobsters at simmer…
July 11th, 2010 at 6:27 pm
Yes, this can happen! We found with steaming or boiling lobster that there is nothing wrong with lowering the heat and adding a few extra minutes to the cooking time. Jasper White in his book Lobster at Home, suggest longer cooking times.
We recently cooked up a 5.5 pound monster lobster. We used a rectangular Chafer pan on two gas burners, added water, some Maine sea salt and brought it to a rolling boil. Next, we added the lobster and waited until the water came back to a boil (about 5 minutes), covered with aluminum foil and started timing. After exactly 20 minutes we pulled the lobster out. We inserted a meat thermometer into the tail and one in the crusher claw. It read 120ยบ. We cracked the lobster and tasted the meat– perfect!