Consider the Lobster
PETA readers, you may want to skip this post.
Sunday is Valentine’s Day, and while I spend plenty of time in restaurants the rest of the year, I’m not particularly wild about eating out on the same day as the rest of the world. I know it’s a big money-maker for hard-working restaurant owners and chefs, but It’s just not my style. Or my husband’s. We’d rather hunker down with some wine at home and cook together.
But we actually met on Valentine’s Day, at a party. So to mark the occasion, we do something we only literally get to do about once a year - boil lobsters! I’ve already got a bottle of small-producer Chablis stashed away, and I can’t wait to start melting the butter Sunday night.
There’s nothing like a pair of live, clawing crustaceans to bring a little excitement to the kitchen.
I’ve been researching the most humane way to kill them, though. Call me a wimp, but there is something striking about bringing home these very live creatures (in cardboard boxes that look like pet-carriers, no less) and then chowing down on them. It at least makes you think about your meal in a way that shrink-wrapped chickens do not.
This Atlantic article was helpful, and so was the Lobster Institute. Yes, one exists. From its website, I learned why lobsters turn red (live lobsters greenish/black because of its different color pigments. When it is cooked, all the pigments are masked except for astaxanthin, the red background pigment) and that lobster “has less calories, less total fat and less cholesterol (based on 100 grams of cooked product) than lean beef; whole poached eggs; and even roasted, skinless chicken breast. Lobster is also high in amino acids; potassium and magnesium; Vitamins A, B12, B6, B3 (niacin) and B2 (riboflavin); calcium and phosphorus; iron; and zinc.”
I digress.
You can check out the Lobster Institute for loads of information on lobsters, including cooking, but they suggest icing or chilling the lobsters briefly (Until numb - a few minutes? How are we really to know? I’m betting 5 to 10 minutes will be enough. You don’t want to freeze them.) before putting them in a pot of water at a rolling boil. Researchers think the best way to minimize a lobster’s time clanking around in the pot (and your trauma). And it’s got to be less messy than sticking a knife in their back before boiling them, though a friend suggested dousing their heads in wine (or cheap vodka).
Do lobsters feel pain? No, the Lobster Institute says, or least about as much as insects do. “Neither insects nor lobsters have brains. For an organism to perceive pain it must have a more complex nervous system. Neurophysiologists tell us that lobsters, like insects, do not process pain,” the Institute says.
Note: A PETA spokesperson sent me a comment arguing that lobsters do, indeed, feel pain. You can read it below. It’s an argument that I think is still up for debate.
Here’s to you, lobsters!
