Natural form

Whole live American lobster showing distinctive claws, antennae, and segmented body.

Shows readers the complete animal so they can recognize a whole lobster at market.

Proteins

Lobster

Sweet, luxurious shellfish for boiling, grilling, and rolls

Sweet, firm, and indulgent, lobster boils or grills for a special occasion and chills into the perfect roll. Cook it the day you buy it; keep it very cold until then.

Lobster is a large marine crustacean prized for the sweet, firm, faintly briny meat in its tail and claws — the special-occasion shellfish, whether boiled or steamed and cracked open with melted butter, grilled, or folded into a buttery roll. Cold-water lobsters (Maine/American and European) carry the claws that hold so much meat; warm-water spiny lobsters are tail-only. The cook's care is twofold: cooking it just to doneness so the meat stays tender rather than tough, and handling live lobsters humanely and freshly. The shells and bodies make one of the most luxurious stocks and bisques in cooking.

Measured in: g
Storage: Refrigerate
Shelf life: 1 days

Allergens

Shellfish

Find it in

Seafood

Types & varieties

Maine / American lobster

Cold-water, big-clawed — the classic for boiling and rolls.

European lobster

Blue-shelled cold-water lobster, prized in Europe.

Spiny / rock lobster

Warm-water, clawless; meat is in the tail.

Lobster tails

Sold frozen; convenient for grilling and broiling.

Picked lobster meat

Ready for rolls, salads, and bisque.

Spiny (Rock) Lobster

Clawless warm-water lobster prized for its meaty, firm tail. Grill or broil split tails with butter; the lack of claws makes the tail the whole show.

Maine (American) Lobster

Cold-water lobster with sweet claw and tail meat. Boil or steam whole for lobster rolls and bisque; reserve the shells for a rich stock.

How to choose

A live lobster should be genuinely lively — moving, with a tail that curls under when picked up — and heavy for its size. Hard-shelled lobsters hold more meat than recently molted soft-shells. Frozen tails should look firm and translucent with no gray patches or ammonia smell. Pre-cooked picked meat should smell sweet and clean.

How to store / food safety

Keep live lobsters cold and damp (in the fridge under a wet cloth, never in fresh water, which kills them) and cook the same day — cook lobsters live or freshly killed, as a dead one spoils fast and is unsafe. Cook to opaque meat (~60°C). Lobster is a major allergen. Refrigerate cooked meat and use within a day or two.

How to cook

Boil or steam whole lobster just until the shell is bright red and the meat is opaque — roughly 8–12 minutes depending on size; overcooking turns it rubbery. Many cooks chill or freeze the lobster briefly and use a swift kill for humane dispatch. Grilled or broiled split lobster with butter is excellent. Don't discard the shells — simmer them into a deeply flavored stock or bisque.

Common uses

Boiled or steamed with drawn butterLobster rollsGrilled or broiled tailsLobster bisque and stockThermidor and NewburgLobster mac and cheeseSalads and seafood plattersPasta and risotto