You'll need:
- Claw scissors
- Seafood pliers with crackers
- Seafood forks (for getting to the hard-to-reach bits)
- A bowl for empty shells
- Napkins to clean up the juices
(If you can, it's useful to have enough tools for all diners so there are no fights over the pliers!)
Preparing the lobster:
- After cooking the lobster, put it in an ice bath to prevent it cooking further. This also makes it easier to handle.
- Remove the claws: Hold the body with one hand and then twist off the claws with your other.
- Remove the tail from the body – twist and pull them apart. Remember to keep the head and body of the lobster, as it also contains lots of meat!
- Pull top shell away from the body and discard. Inside you will see the lobster liver (called tomalley) – it's green and is also edible. If your lobster is female then you will also see the lobster's roe – or caviar! - which is also tasty. It will either be red or black in colour; if it's black then it's not cooked and you should steam it for a few minutes until it turns red.
- Remove the legs and spongy gills from the body, and suck the meat and juices from the legs (yum!).
- With the body, remove the paper-like shells that separate the meat – here you will find a fair amount of the lobster's rib meat.
- Take the claws apart at the joints – this should give you 4 pieces of claw. Using your scissors or crackers, remove the shell from the meat. The scissors are probably best here as they won't crush the meat inside the shell.
- With the tail, remove the tail flaps and suck the meat and juices out of the holes.
- Now you can extract the tail meat in one piece. Push the meat out using your finger; you can stick your finger into the base of the tail where the smallest opening is. Enjoy.
