If you find yourself searching for a gift for a person who seemingly has no needs, remember the need for food. A gourmet food item will not only fill a need, but do so with style and excitement. And no gourmet food item is as exciting as live Maine lobsters.
The word gourmet is overused to the point that many people have strong dislike for the word "gourmet." This dislike can be alleviated by learning the actual meaning of it. A gourmet is merely a person with a detailed knowledge of the finest food and drink. The word originates came from the French word "groumet," which is a valet in charge of wine.
Gourmet lobster, therefore, is the finest lobsters. And the finest lobsters are those that are fresh from the ocean, not those taken out of a holding tank in a warehouse where they have been kept alive for weeks on end without food. Sending live Maine lobsters fresh from the ocean as a gift is a special and unique way of showing a person that you care immensely for them.
Gourmet lobsters can be a gift for a birthday, anniversary, graduation, Mother's Day, or any other significant milestone. They can also be given to customers, clients, and key employees. There are many companies that offer live lobster, or lobster tails. However, careful attention should be applied in order to make the best choice for your important customer.
Without question, the best lobster is lobster that is caught in the morning and shipped in the afternoon. Have you ever tasted a peach directly from a peach tree, or a carrot freshly plucked from the ground and rinsed? The flavor is exceptional. Compare the taste with a peach or carrot that has spent weeks in cross-country transport and sat on the supermarket shelf for a few more days before being consumed. Could you taste the difference in flavor?
Most foods experience a decrease in flavor as time passes, and lobster is no exception. Sending the gift of gourmet lobster is giving the gift of the prize of New England. Your employee or customer will be very pleased and delighted with the surprise of fresh, live lobsters arriving on their doorstep direct from the icy Gulf of Maine.
You should carefully consider which company you choose before placing an order for live Maine lobsters. Most firms store their lobster in tanks that re-circulate saltwater. Once placed in these tanks, lobsters are kept without feeding for days or weeks until being removed to be shipped. In the ocean, lobsters are loners. Placed close together, lobsters will fight, and will actually become cannibalistic. That is why lobsters claws are banded before being placed in the tank. The owner of the lobsters does not want to lose half or more of his inventory due to fighting.
Being held in a tank crowded with other lobsters is a stressful situation for a lobster. In this stressful tank environment, lobsters suffer from atrophy, whereby the meat or muscle of the lobster shrinks, and the flavor diminishes. While still good to eat, lobsters that are from a tank are not the most succulent, tastiest available. Until you've tasted a fresh lobster, you have no idea how sweet and flavorful they really are.
When ordering lobsters online, check the company literature. Find out if their lobsters are shipped directly from the ocean, or if they have been stored in tanks. The difference in taste is priceless. Be aware the Federal Express operates on Saturday for a premium price, and does not operate on Sunday at all. You can therefore expect lobsters to be shipped from Mondays to Fridays, meaning you have available the option to receive them any day from Tuesday to Saturday. You will not be able to receive them on Monday because Federal Express does not accept packages on Sunday, nor do they deliver on Sunday. Follow the suggestions in this article, and your gourmet lobster gift from Maine will be remembered for years to come.
Isn't that what gift giving is all about?
Live Lobsters For Sale
Advocates for animal rights will protest the practice of putting live lobsters into boiling water. Their concerns are based on whether or not the lobster is capable of feeling pain. They believe that there has to be a better way to cook live lobsters.
There has been a lot of scientific research done to try to determine the amount of pain a lobster actually feels. While not being totally conclusive the findings have been good news for people who love to eat fresh lobster.
A lobster has a brain about the same size as a grasshopper has which is pretty minute for a larger animal like a lobster. Lobsters brains are lacking in the complexity human brains have which means a lobster is unable to think.
Scientists have concluded that there is no way a lobster's brain is complex enough for the lobster to be able to feel pain when plunged into boiling water. The findings have ended the debate about cooking lobsters, at least for now, by saying it's okay to boil, steam, and grill live lobsters.
To steam a lobster you need to start with a four to five gallon pot which is the ideal size for steaming six to eight pounds of lobster. Put about two inches of seawater (if you have access to it) or other salted water in the bottom of the pot. Put your steaming rack inside the pot, and bring the water to a rolling boil over high heat. Add the live lobsters one at a time. Put the lid on the pot and start timing. One pound of lobster takes approximately 10 minutes to steam. With six to eight pounds, it will take closer to an hour. Make sure that you rearrange the lobsters in the pot half way through the cooking process.
Using the four to five gallon pot, add three quarts of water for every 1 to 2 pounds of lobster you want to boil. Next add one-fourth cup of salt per gallon of water. After heating the salted water to a rolling boil, add the lobsters one at a time. One pound of lobster needs to be boiled about 8 minutes, while it will take 50 minutes to an hour for six to eight pounds. Time the process carefully and halfway through the cooking time give the lobsters a good stir.
Grilling lobsters starts the same way boiling them does by cooking them in boiling water for about five minutes. Remove them from the hot water immediately and plunge them into a cold water bath so that they won't continue to cook. Take each well-drained lobster and place it on its back on a cutting board. Using a sharp knife, split each lobster down the middle and cut out the black vein in the tail and the sand sac by the head. Baste the lobsters with melted butter or oil and place them flesh-side down on the grill. Cook them for five to six minutes on that side before turning them over. Baste them again and continue cooking for another four or five minutes.
There are still people who shy away from lobsters that are cooked live, but most have come to accept the fact that the lobsters do not suffer. Cooking a live lobster is the way to experience the freshest lobster meat available. Not only can you purchase live lobsters at restaurants and supermarkets, there are also many wonderful online seafood shops that promise the very freshest lobster delivered to your door overnight.
Both Greg Roy & Sherry Shantel are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Greg Roy has sinced written about articles on various topics from Cooking Tips, Real Estate and Buying and Selling Home. G. Roy is a former recreational Maine fisherman and owner of the site . For. Greg Roy's top article generates over 18100 views. to your Favourites.
Sherry Shantel has sinced written about articles on various topics from Food and Drink, Aquarium Fish and Gift Ideas. Reading this article you can tell it is about live lobsters, this really is an immense topic and can't cover everything in only one article. There is also. Sherry Shantel's top article generates over 6600 views. to your Favourites.
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