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Boiled Lobster
Place some water on the fire, and when it is boiling fast put the lobster in, head first, so that it may be killed at once. Place the lid on and let the lobster boil for half an hour. Take it out and leave it until well drained, then wipe off the scum and rub it over with a little piece of butter tied in a cloth.
A plain boiled lobster meant for the cold buffet or the dining room, where the shell was expected to shine. The one thing to change is the time.
- Half an hour is far too longThirty minutes will turn any lobster under three pounds into cotton wool. Figure roughly 8-10 minutes for a 1 to 1 1/4 lb lobster and about 12-14 minutes for a 1 1/2 to 2 lb one, timed from the moment the water returns to the boil.
- Salt the waterThe recipe says nothing about it. Lobster boiled in plain water tastes flat; use enough salt to make the water frankly briny, around 1/3 cup per gallon.
- Head firstPlunging the lobster in headfirst into water already at a hard rolling boil is a common method and is what the recipe intends. Keep the claws banded until it goes in.
- Enough water, and keep the lid onThe pot needs enough water to submerge the lobster completely and enough headroom that it does not boil over when the lid goes on. If the water stalls off the boil for more than a moment, the pot is too small or too crowded.
- The scum and the butterThe white curd that clings to the shell is coagulated protein. Wiping it off and rubbing the shell with butter tied in a cloth is purely cosmetic, giving the shell a lacquered red gloss for service; it does nothing to the meat.
- DrainingStand the lobster on its head or on the tail end in a colander for several minutes. Water trapped in the body cavity will run out over the plate at exactly the wrong moment otherwise.
- YieldOne 1 1/4 lb lobster serves one person as a main course, or two if the meat is being picked for a salad or cocktail. Expect roughly 20-25 percent of the live weight as edible meat.
Oscar Tschirky ran the dining rooms of the Waldorf and then the Waldorf-Astoria through the decades when lobster went from cheap coastal protein to a marker of metropolitan luxury. Railroads and iced shipping had made live Maine lobster routine in New York by the 1890s, and the hotel's cold buffets, lobster Newburg and lobster salads depended on a steady supply of plainly boiled ones. The entry itself is spare: no seasoning discussion, no serving suggestion, just the killing, the boiling, the draining and the buttering of the shell. The half hour it calls for is longer than anything now recommended.