How to Eat a Fresh Maine Lobster: “Pa” Shares His Strategy to Enjoying New England’s Most Popular Seafood

How to Eat a Fresh Maine Lobster: Pa’s Six Simple Steps

For visitors and locals alike, ordering a fresh Maine lobster is a quintessential New England summer experience, but if this happens to be your first time ordering, you’re likely to be lost on how to get started when it comes to eating one.

Fortunately, at Weathervane Seafood Restaurants, we serve up approximately 200,000 lbs. of steamed Maine lobsters each year and our service staff knows the secret to the often asked question: How do you eat a fresh Maine lobster and what’s the proper lobster eating technique?

Since 1969, when Ray and Bea Gagner opened their first seafood stand, Ray, also known as “Pa,” has provided us his easy to follow, six-step technique. So let’s learn from Pa:

 Step One: Pa Always Puts a Bib On. You’ll See Why Soon.

You may be worried about etiquette when eating your lobster, but this is not always the most polished of practices. Eating a fresh steamed lobster will require you to use both hands and once you start cracking, you’ll see that the tender lobster meat is quite juicy and tastiest when dipped in hot drawn butter.

Step Two: He Twists the Claws Off. Very Hot Juice Inside!

The easiest place to start is with the two claws. From the knuckle at the lobster’s body, you’ll easily be able to twist and pop the claws off. The claws tend to be the juiciest parts of the lobster since they collect the steamy salt water when cooking.

Step Three: Pa Cracks Each Claw with His Nutcracker.

Using the nutcracker, clamp down firmly along the claw until the sides of the shell crack. This will allow you to break the claw open and pull the lobster meat out using your lobster fork. Typically the entire piece of claw meat will come out in one piece.

Step Four: He Breaks Off the Tail and Removes the Tail Fins.

Now here’s where it starts to get interesting! Holding the lobster firmly in both hands, you can twist the tail completely apart from the lobster’s upper body. Each of the tail fins can be plucked off of the tail and they contain small pieces of tasty meat.

Step Five: Pa Uses a Lobster Pick to Push the Tail Meat Out.

During the cooking process, the lobster’s tail will firm and curl. Using your lobster pick, you can gently push the tail meat through and it will come out whole. Lobster tail meat has great flavor, so be sure to dip the meat in your drawn butter before enjoying.

Step Six: Pa says, “There’s Plenty of Meat in the Body… Crack the Shell Apart Sideways.”

You’re not done yet! If you want to eat your lobster like a true “New Englander,” you have to continue on to the meat found within the legs and body. Each of the lobster legs will snap off easily and you can suck the lobster meat right out. The gray/greenish substance found in the inside of the lobster’s body is the lobster’s liver—or the tomalley. The tomalley is edible, however it’s typically only enjoyed by the most diehard of lobster fans.

At the end of the day, you’ll find that most people adopt their own personalized approach on how to eat a Maine lobster, but there is a lot of how-to advice out there — so make the experience your own and don’t be afraid to get a little messy! Or, if all the work seems too daunting of a task, you can always opt for the classic Lobster Roll or let us do the work and order the Lazy Man Lobster, available at all our Weathervane locations.

For more tips, local marine-related news, and seafood recipes, remember to stay connected with Weathervane’s blog. Or browse our menu and come join us for some of New England’s favorite seafood!

 

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