Top 10 Interesting Maine Lobster Facts
Top 10 Maine Lobster Facts
1. Lobster was once as despised as Spam is today.
Like any food that’s available in great abundance, Cold Water lobster once was shunned as a poor man’s food. In Colonial days, only paupers and slaves lowered themselves to eating the plentiful crustacean that piled on the shoreline in heaps. The rest of the unwanted cooked lobster were tossed to the pigs.
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2. Live Lobsters drown in fresh water.
This is particularly helpful to know if you don’t want to listen to your lobster flailing against the sides of the boiling water while you cook him. Plunging a live main lobster into a pail of fresh water will drown him without the added insult of boiling water. Plus, not boiling lobster alive can prevent the meat from toughening.
2. Live Lobsters drown in fresh water.
This is particularly helpful to know if you don’t want to listen to your lobster flailing against the sides of the boiling water while you cook him. Plunging a live main lobster into a pail of fresh water will drown him without the added insult of boiling water. Plus, not boiling lobster alive can prevent the meat from toughening.
3. Lobster mamas carry their eggs on the outside, not the inside.
Female lobsters' window of opportunity for mating is limited to right after molding, and as a result they’re aggressively hunting males at these times. Once she’s been bred, the female carries the sperm and can choose when to fertilize her eggs, or roe, even up to a year if water is warm and conditions are optimal. The eggs are carried on the tail, and they look like a dark line. They can be eaten. Only .1 percent of a lobster eggs will live, so it’s important to mark the lobsters that produce well.
When they find a female lobsters that bears eggs well, lobster fisherman will cut a notch on her tail to warn others not to harvest her, since she’s keeping them in business by reproducing so well. Main Lobstermen also toss back any oversized lobsters so they can contribute their efficient growth to future generations.
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4. American Indians valued these delicacies.
They baked them over hot rocks after wrapping the lobster bake in seaweed. They also used them when hunting, as bait, and as fertilizer for their crops.
5. Lobsters molt by shedding their shells.
When a lobster grows old enough that scar tissue connects to both the soft underbelly and the shell, molting can be halted. In these cases, the lobster will not survive the molting process, since even the digestive tract is contained in the exoskeleton.
6. Wild Lobster are naturally different colors.
All of these colors except red are heat-sensitive and fade in hot water. After a fresh lobster is cooked, the only color that withstands the heat is red, which is why all cooked lobsters are red.
7. Maine Lobsters are bottom feeders.
Marine Lobster usually feed on bottom dwellers like clams, snails, and crabs. Still, lobsters prefer live food rather than dead offal.
8. It’s been reported that lobsters live up to 100 years.
Theoretically, if a lobster could continue molting without difficulty and had a perfect environment, there are no other reasons a lobster couldn’t live on and on, although it’s highly unlikely for one to never encounter perils at some point. Continue growing lobster, and they’ve even been found as longs as four feet.
9. Is Lobsters healthy.
If you’re trying to build muscle or fight anemia, eating lobster tail is a delicious way to do it. Not only does lobster contain those beneficial omega-3 fatty acids, but it also contains high recommended daily allowances of protein as well as some iron.
10. Lobsters are fascinating.
Live Maine Lobster are the perfect creatures to study for students and anyone fascinated by strange creatures. Looking for more information on lobsters? Here are just a few characteristics for your budding scientist to observe:
- Lobsters have clear blood that turns the consistency of opaque white jelly when it’s cooked.
- Lobsters swim backward as easily as forward. Especially when they’re afraid, they’ll jet backward using their curling tails.
- Lobsters have the nickname “bugs” because they so resemble the design of grasshoppers and ants.
- When do lobsters molt, they’re often caught shell-less as soft shell lobster because their meat is extra delectable. This usually occurs in the late summer and early fall months. Soft-shelled lobsters’ claws are lighter than typical lobsters.
- Lobsters don’t have typical teeth to bite, but beware their powerful pincers. They're designed with a gastric mill in their digestive tract that grinds their food for them, making some people say they have “teeth in their stomach.”
In the end, despite all these weird lobster facts, it all boils down to deliciousness. Despite their exquisiteness, lobsters are surprisingly easy to cook. Just boil a one pound lobster in salt water for up to fifteen minutes. Serve with clarified butter, which is simply melted butter with the frothy solids skimmed off. Easy and delicious!
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