Lobsters
are fascinating creatures, and here you will find
everything you wanted to know about them and more…
Terminology
Cull: A lobster with only
one claw
Chicken lobster: Between 1 and 1-1/4
lbs.
Selects: Choice lobsters (the only kind
served at Testa’s)
Tomalley: The greenish liver found in
the body,
considered a delicacy by many
Short: A lobster below legal size
Trap, pot or poverty box: Names for the
wooden
or plastic coated wire trap used to
catch lobsters
Scientific names
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class: Crustacea
Subclass: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda (ten feete)
Family: Nephropidae
Genus: Homarus
Species: Americanus
How
big do lobsters grow?
There are records from Colonial days of lobsters
5 to 6 feet in length, but in recent years the
largest recorded lobster was 3-1/2 feet long.
It weighed in at 44 lbs., and was caught off the
coast of Nova Scotia in 1977. It takes a lobster
close to 7 years to reach legal size of 3-1/4
inches from eye socket to beginning of tail. At
this size, it weighs about 1 to 1-1/4 lbs.
How do lobsters see?
Nocturnal animals, they have very poor vision,
but 50,000 to 100,000 sensory bristles give them
a keen sense of touch, and ability to detect subtle
chemical changes in the water—useful for
finding food and mates.
Where do lobsters live?
Lobsters live offshore in winter and
migrate annually, moving close to the rocky coast
in summer. This is why you will frequently see
buoys bobbing just a few feet from shore.
What is a berried lobster?
No, this isn’t lobster topped with blueberry
sauce. A berried lobster is a female with her
tail full of tiny (smaller than the head of a
pin) black eggs. How many? 10,000 to 20,000, of
which only about 10 will survive the first four
weeks of life. One particularly bountiful female
was found carrying 97,400 eggs at one time. We
are impressed, both with her, and with the scientist
who counted them.
Can a lobster be blue?
More uncommon than a blue moon, blue lobsters
are said to occur only once in every ten thousands
lobsters. Yellow and white lobsters have also
been known.
No more lobster, please!
In the 1700s a typical servant’s contract
included the clause that they would not be forced
to eat lobster more than three times a week.
In 1623, the ship Anne arrived and was
given the sorry feast of "a lobster, or a
piece of fish, without bread or anything else
but a cup of spring water.”
When man first put lobster on the menu is mercifully
shrouded in mystery—it couldn’t have
been a pretty sight watching him figure out how
to eat the crawly things. But as early as 1571
they were a delicacy, for they were served in
Paris at a banquet for Elizabeth of Austria.
How many ways are there to cook lobster?
Too many, but we can recommend a few…
Broiled or boiled
Baked stuffed
lobster au gratin
Lobster Thermidore
Lobster Newberg
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