Where your seafood comes from: Lobster

This blog series is for learning more about the seafood you are eating and where it comes from. It will explore the wide variety of species that can be found in UK waters, and provide you with key information about the product, top tips on how to cook it, and what to look for when buying.  

What is a lobster:  

Mostly seen as a luxurious seafood product, lobster is arguably one of the most recognizable species of seafood. Scotland has a strong connection with Lobster fishing throughout its history however, Lobster has not always been associated with luxury. In fact, back in the 17th and 18th Century lobster was considered a ‘poor-man’s food’ and in some places were even fed to pigs and goats. 

A member of the crustacean family, Lobsters are distinguished by their long bodies and large claws and can significantly vary in size. They grow endlessly throughout their lives and can live up to 100 years, however, all Lobsters landed and eaten across Scotland are controlled by strict regulations. This means that only Lobsters that have a carapace (the area between their eyes to the start of their tail) equal to or shorter than 145mm, can be landed.  

Where do Lobsters come from? 

Lobsters live exclusively in salt water and use rocky areas as their homes. They are fished around the coast of Scotland, most commonly in smaller vessels using creels and traps. Creels used in UK waters are specifically designed to catch lobsters of a certain size, ensuring that the younger, smaller lobsters can crawl out, and the larger breeding lobsters are too big to get in.  

You can fish for lobsters year-round, but due to the stormy weather most lobster fishers will stop during the winter months. 

In Scotland there are strict regulations around the size of Lobsters you are allowed to land. It is the responsibility of those who catch lobsters to sort through and release any over or undersized lobsters. Although the size of the lobster is the only restriction in law, many lobster fishers will release female lobsters that are berried (meaning they are carrying eggs), and any lobsters that have been v-notched. V-notching lobsters is a practice that many lobster fishers practice, where they identify breeding female lobsters and mark their tails to ensure other fishers are aware that that lobster is breeding.  

The lobsters that we sell at West Coast Sea Products come directly from the Solway Firth.  

How do you cook Lobsters?

Lobsters can be cooked in a variety of ways. Lots of people prefer to buy their lobsters pre-cooked, where the fishmonger will kill the lobster and boil them before the customer buys them. You can also buy lobsters live and cook them in a variety of ways at home. There are several ways to kill a lobster if you are buying them live from your fishmonger, the most important thing to remember is that lobsters need to be cooked immediately after they have been killed to maintain freshness and quality.  

How to kill a lobster:  

• You can put a live lobster in the freezer for 30-60 minutes, this puts them in a docile paralysed state, and it is believed that they then do not have any feeling when you add them headfirst to boiling water.  

• Use a sharp skewer, and stab the lobster right between the eyes, this kills the lobster instantly.  
• A combination of the two – you can put the live lobster in the freezer for 15-30 minutes, making it more docile before using a sharp skewer or knife to pierce the head. You can still boil the lobster after killing this way.  

Cooking your Lobster:  

• Cooking from raw. The most common way is boiling them. Bring a pot of salted water to the boil, add the lobster in, bring the pot back to the boil and time for 7 minutes (this is specific for the size of lobsters that we sell, larger lobsters will require longer boiling times). Once cooked, remove from the pot, and cool down as quickly as possible. Once cooked, split the lobster down the middle, remove the black vein and the stomach, and use a heavy instrument to crack open the claws. 

• Once killed you can split the lobster in half whilst raw and cook on the BBQ or under the grill. Eat whilst hot with a drizzle of garlic butter.  
• Add to a recipe! Lobster can be added to lots of seafood recipes to add a touch of luxury and decadence to the dish. A favourite of ours is Lobster Thermidor (you can find the recipe in our recipe section!). 

It is common to see a variation of colour in the tomalley, found inside the carapace, throughout the year. This is the equivalent to the liver in a lobster, that changes colour throughout their spawning season and is also affected by their diets. The tomalley colour can be beige, solid red, dark green or light green and is edible no matter what colour it is. However, the flavour and texture of the tomalley does change depending on the colour, and so it is down to personal preference as to whether you eat this part of the lobster or not. 

What to look for when buying Lobster:

Due to the strict regulation surrounding the size of lobsters all fishmongers will only supply you with lobsters that are within the regulation. If you see a lobster that looks small, this does not mean that the lobster is undersized. In the Solway Firth for example, you are legally allowed to land lobsters that have carapaces of between 87mm-145mm, compared to 90mm-145mm in other areas of Scotland. It is always best to check with your fishmonger to see where the lobster has come from.  

If you are buying your lobster pre-cooked, always ask when the fishmonger cooked the lobster. Lobsters will stay fresh for up to 7 days after cooking (if stored correctly), so to get lobsters of the best quality we would recommend buying lobsters that have been cooked within the past 2 days.  

Always ask your fishmonger if the lobster has been previously frozen. Although you can freeze lobster without posing any health risks, the quality of the meat will deteriorate if it is frozen.  

Avoid buying a lobster with one claw. It is illegal to land female lobsters with one claw, known as ‘crippled’ and so no fishmonger should have one-clawed female lobsters in stock.  

Lobsters, like many crustaceans, shed their shells seasonally. You should check the firmness of the shell (on the side of the head), if the shell feels soft then there is a chance the lobster may be holding more water inside than usual.  

Fun Lobster Facts:  

• Lobsters swim backwards by kicking their tails 
• Lobsters have teeth in their stomachs  
• Lobster claws are extremely strong, if you get your fingers caught, they could cut them clean off! 
• Lobster brains are no bigger than the tip of a ballpoint pen