How to Prepare Lobster Claws

Part of the Video Series How to Cook Lobster, Crab, & Shrimp

Viewing videos requires the latest version of Adobe's Flash Player.
Get the latest Flash player.

How to access the meat from lobster claws for cooking; learn this and more in this free online instructional cooking video about seafood taught by an expert.

Rating:
Views: 2,770
Comments: 2 (read)

Favorited: 0 | Add to Favorites

Tags: cooking, food, Louis Ortiz, recipe, recipes, seafood
Bookmark at:

All Videos in the Series, How to Cook Lobster, Crab, & Shrimp

Member Comments

Posted by danman on Thursday, 31 January, 2008 at 8:20 PM

(mark as spam)

.................... .................... .................... .................... ...........

Posted by danman on Thursday, 31 January, 2008 at 8:17 PM

(mark as spam)

Im gonna cook tonight!

Video Transcript

How to Prepare Lobster Claws
Okay we are back to showing you how to get into lobster claws. We've already broken the front legs and cracked those and we got a small portion of lobster meat there to start with. Now I've actually cracked this guy first with a lobster cracker and I usually try to start on the back ends, the sturdier part of the claw and press up against this guy so that it will hold still for you. Sometimes they will get a little stubborn. You just want to break this shell and it is quite thick as you can tell because the meat itself is loose inside there. It's just that we have to get to it. Once we've cracked this this way, all we really need to do is trim this up, so just pull gently and this is going to come out of there. Instead of smashing all this and risking to ruin the meat and smash the meat as well, just open this back end and that way the meat itself will pull just straight back like that. So that is a good indication that you steam the lobster as long as you need it when the meat stays solid like this after it is chilled. So there's one claw there. That's the easiest way as far as that goes and now this guy had a little bit bigger claw than he did from one side of the other so we may need to crack this a little bit. First and foremost, I am going to take this lower claw out and just pull back. See there is a whole lot of residual moisture there that comes out of there. Some folks like to just try and cut which we can do with these. Others like to tray and smash it and that is fine too. If you do, I would put a towel over it as far as that goes. I'm a big fan of just the shears. Keeps everything looking nice. You still are not safe from the splash at times. I made the one cut. It is still quite a bit thick and it is going to need to be broken out a little bit. So we'll pop this out of here in just a second. I'm going to make a bad cut along the backside of this claw so we can get that out of there. I'm really just following the curvature of the claw itself. Now we get some leverage. Pop that and there is our other claw meat. We have to use a little bit more force because it was a thicker claw. We will come back and show you how to get the tail off and take the head from the tail and finish breaking this guy down for you.

About the Expert

Expert: Louis Ortiz is a professional chef instructor at a culinary institute. He has been working in the culinary industry for 10 years. Read More