Video:How to Cook Lobster

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Transcript:How to Cook Lobster

Hello I am Rich Vellante, Executive Chef of Legal Sea Foods in Boston, MA for About.com Food. Today I am going to show you how to cook a lobster.

What You Need to Cook Lobster

Now the first thing we are going to do is talk about what you need. Obviously you need lobsters. I would recommend two hard shell lobsters. Those are usually the most expensive but with the hard shell lobsters the meat is full in the shell. The other thing that you need is a stock pot because we are going to steam these lobsters. I think it is one of the better ways to cook a lobster instead of boiling them you are better off steaming them. We are going to steam them in beer. You do not need a lot of liquid; you just need enough to create some steam. You will also need some flavoring. I like to put in a little bit of lemon but you can add some herbs from the garden if you like.

Put Lemon and Beer in the Stock Pot

All you need to do is cut up the lemon. I just cut it into slices. And in the stock pot you pour in the beer. You swirl the beer like this and it comes out much quicker. I'll throw in my lemon and what we'll do is we'll get this started. Now what I'll do is I'll put this on the stove and I'll put it on high to create some steam. So I'll start it off on high, I'll cover it.

Prepare the Lobsters for Cooking

OK now we have to prepare the lobsters for this. What I like to do is to take the rubber bands off. I don't want any of that rubber flavor. Its OK if you do have the rubber bands. If you take them off you have to be a little more careful.

Steam the Lobsters

So I have the pot and I had it on high heat. But now what I want to do is turn it down to a medium/high heat. And you see the steam coming out so now is the time that I put in my lobsters. Now the lobsters will obviously cool down the pot so I want it on medium/high. I put the lobsters in head first. And then you close it up. At this point you wait 7 – 8 minutes.

So I'll take our lobsters which are still in the pot. This was about 8 minutes. You can see all the steam. There is not a tremendous amount of liquid. So in other words, the liquid stays in the lobster. What happens if you immerse this in a lot of oil and water which is what a lot of people do is that it leeches out a lot of the flavor. As you can see here there is not a tremendous amount of liquid. So you are going to end up with a more intense flavor.

Remove the Lobsters and Enjoy

So you can reach right in and take them out. Sometimes when you take them out you may notice that a claw has fallen off or that something is not intact – that's quite alright. Don't panic. Just search around and find it. Thanks for watching to learn more visit us on the web at food.about.com