Buying and cooking spiny lobster and how to avoid disappointments

I wrote this post some time ago but never got around to publish it. Being in the middle of the festive season, it seems appropriate to push the post button now and it will buy me more time to finalize posts related to Japan.

One of the most sought after lobsters is perhaps the spiny lobster from the Mediterranean so I will write about that this time. But the principles are the same for any kind of lobster.

I frankly don’t know many people who see the big deal with spiny lobsters or regular blue lobsters. When disappointing, and it often is, a spiny lobster it is just a chunk of really boring protein. And it can be a chewy chunk too.

To succeed with any kind of lobster recipe, whether it is European blue lobster, American lobster, spiny lobster or slipper lobsters, the quality of the lobster is essential. If not of great quality, it can indeed be one of the most disappointing expensive ingredients on the planet. But if it is of top notch quality, the flavors and textures can be sensational. Yes, at its best, to my palate it is one of the truly great ingredients. So what determines the quality of lobsters?

The best lobsters I have eaten, whether they were European blue lobster, American lobsters or spiny lobsters have always, without exception, not spent much time in a tank or out of the sea. Also, I think the best lobsters have been net caught. Why is this? Well, much of what is living in the sea can take on flavors from what they eat. Blue lobsters that have been trap caught have often consumed bait that has decomposed and that may have been treated with chemicals to attract lobsters to the trap can take on undesired flavors. The general idea is that trap caught lobsters need to spend at least several days in a tank after catch to so to speak wash off flavors from the bait. However, net caught lobsters never display these off flavors. If a lobster spends time in tank, the texture changes and there will be a lot more loss of liquid when cooking the lobster, at least generally speaking. It is easy to explain. While they like much fish are used to fasting, it has been shown that lobsters under starvation undergo a change of the composition of their bodies. The body weight will not really change but their water content will increase and the amount of organic material will decrease. The changes are quite remarkable. So it is no surprise that lobsters that have spent time in tanks are so obviously inferior. On top of this there is the stress factor. Two weeks in a tank will be absolutely detrimental to the quality of a lobster. It is however a complicated matter because it also depends if the lobster is preparing to change its shell. Just before changing the shell, lobsters absorb a lot of water to crack the previous shell. The few lobsters I have eaten that have been about to change their shells have not been particularly good. On the other hand, a lobster that has changed their shells recently and gotten a new shell in place is usually of exceptional quality. While it is pure speculation from my part, this probably has to do with that after removing the old shell, lobsters eat ferociously to gain weight and to harden the shell.

When choosing a lobster, it is important to only deal with reliable suppliers. A reliable supplier is someone who can guarantee the exact provenance of the lobsters and the time it has been up on land. A lot of lobsters spend time in tanks on land or in cages in the sea after they are caught. As explained above, it does not improve quality.

Ideally, a spiny lobster should look like on the images below with antennas intact and a glossy shell. If the shell is somewhat soft, it is normally not a bad thing as it means it has changed shell recently.

The best lobsters come from waters where there is great food to eat and where the waters are relatively non-polluted. Period. It is simply the case for most seafood. The better the waters, the better the whole food chain will be. So good a rule of thumb is to look for spiny lobsters in areas where there is good diving.

If I can’t find top quality lobsters, I will cook something else.

I generally prefer the females for the coral inside. Are they better? Well I think so. How do you spot the difference between a female and a male spiny lobster? On the image below on the top is a female and on the bottom is a male. The female has bigger flaps on the tail to enable eventually carrying the roe. The same applies for blue lobsters and American lobsters although for those the sex can be seen from looking above too.

Spiny lobster can be cooked in many ways. What is important to remember is that it is essential to apply some high heat initially to avoid the putrefactive proteins from turning black. This time I choose a simple one of just splitting it in half and baking it in the oven, first at high temperature (190 C) for around 4-5 minutes, then at lower temperature (120C) until it is ready. It is easy to spot when it is ready. Simply put the index finger at the thickest part of the tail. It should be warm but the meat should have almost entirely lost its translucent appearance just before the proteins really set. If it is a great quality lobster it will be tender as anything.

If it is a female and there is roe inside it I often make a mousse with it. It is simple. You only need vegetable jus, a bit of gelatin, white banjuls vinegar and clarified butter. Mix it in a mixer and it is ready to go. If more air is needed, run it in the siphon.

I like to serve a sea weed persillade with lobsters. For this you need top quality nori. Forget the supermarket nori “Green dragon” or whatever it is called. For those who pass by Paris I can recommend the Issé shop in 2nd. Great nori is quite expensive but in my fantasy – with a splash of really good shiro-dashi – it can sometimes replace truffles. Not that the flavors are the same but it can evoke similar sensations for me. To make the persillade, clarified butter and a mild Ligurian olive oil are also needed. Clarified butter is by the way my cooking oil of preference right now. Mix the butter and oil with a bit of finely diced and in butter sweated sweet onions. Add the very finely chopped nori and parsley. Finish with a splash of good shiro-dashi.

On the top image above there are also potatoes smoked over juniper berries. It goes well with the seaweed persillade. I will get back to how to do those some other time. It is a childhood memory.