Cook Lobster Tails
How To Cook Lobster Tails
Although many of us have had the luxury of eating lobster, not many have had the chance to prepare a lobster dinner at home. For some reason, many feel that its very difficult or there is some secret to cooking lobster. I think the biggest hesitation with cooking lobster is no one wants to ruin a dinner that can be an expensive dinner for two. The good news is it is very simple in preparing a wonderful lobster dinner! You just need to remember a few things.
First, NEVER cook lobster tails from frozen! If you do, you will find that the texture of the meat is not how you remember it the last time you had it at your favorite seafood restaurant. It will be much tougher and tend to taste rubbery. This is exactly what you don’t want for your expensive home dinner!
The best thing to do is put the frozen lobster tails in the refrigerator the night before you are planning to eat them. This will give them plenty of time to defrost. Some people use the microwave defrost setting but I prefer to let them defrost naturally. In fact, if you are pressed for time I suggest putting them in a sealed plastic bag, like a zip-lock sandwich bag, filling your sink with warm water and placing the sealed bag with the lobster tails into the warm water. Also place a heavier plate over the bag so that the entire lobster is submerged under the water. This method isn’t as fast as the microwave but is more natural and can defrost the lobster tails in less than an hours or two.
Next, check the color of the lobster tails. If the lobster tails are bright red then the tails have already been cooked and they only need to be steamed. If the tails are grey at all they will need to be cooked. Generally, if you purchased the lobsters tails fresh or live than you will need to cook them.
Now to cook the lobster. You can either cook the lobster by boiling, steaming, broiling and grilling the tails. If you decide to boil or steam your lobster its recommended to add salt to the water. The salt helps maintain the lobsters characteristic ocean taste.
Boiling and steaming are the methods of choice when you want to serve diners a whole lobster. Boiling lobster is a little quicker and easier to time precisely, and the meat comes out of the shell more readily than when steamed. For recipes that call for fully cooked and picked lobster meat boiling is the best approach.
In contrast, steaming lobster is more gentle, yielding slightly more tender meat. It preserves a little more flavor and it’s more forgiving on the timing front. It’s harder to overcook a steamed lobster.
For recipes and ways to boil, steam, broil or grill look under the Categories Section on the right for Cooking Lobster.