“Why are lobsters cooked alive – is it cruel? What is the reason behind this practice? #Lobsters #Cooking #AnimalWelfare #Seafood
Have you ever wondered why lobsters are cooked alive instead of being humanely euthanized? Let’s explore the reasons behind this cooking method and whether it’s truly cruel or just a matter of tradition.”
It is indeed cruel.
In Australia it is illegal
Lobsters in tanks at grocery stores was a common thing like 15 years ago but have seemingly disappeared
In culinary school our chef had us kill them first.
Usually, they are “dispatched” just before cooking. Shell fish like lobster and crab have bacteria within their shells that, once the lobster dies, begin to act on the lobster body. This means that lobster becomes dangerous to eat due to bacterial growth very quickly. So if you want fresh, never frozen shellfish, they must be kept alive until just before cooking.
freshness.
They aren’t.
Put a large chef’s knife, point down, just at the edge of the first row of chitin behind the head. The blade’s edge should be facing the front of the lobster, so that the tail is away from you. Puncture down, then rapidly rotate the handle towards you, so you do a 90% rotating cut.
Done.
I shoot mine first
The debate on whether lobsters feel pain is still unsettled in the scientific community, but it’s leaning towards the idea that they do feel some form of discomfort. Regardless, the practice continues because it’s been done this way for generations and the market demands seafood to be as fresh as possible for flavor and safety reasons. Some restaurants now use a method called stunning, which renders the lobster insensitive to pain before boiling, so that’s a step in the right direction. The bigger issue is our willingness to turn a blind eye to potential suffering for the sake of tradition and gustatory pleasure.
Lobster needs to be fresh. You can’t gut a crustacean.
Isn’t there a technique where a sharp poking object is pushed in to some area of the brain just before cooking to kill and avoid this? Saw it somewhere
I highly recommend reading the article “Consider the Lobster” by David Foster Wallace. Should be able to find it by googling. It’s absolutely hilarious, and simultaneously has very disturbing information and commentary on humans.
Well, the choice is being cooked alive or cut in half alive… there is no win for them.
My dad always boiled them live. Always made me sad but the taste made me forget their pain.. damn i love lobster!!
Everything you eat has to be killed. Isn’t that cruel?
They generally get killed first
Hundreds of comments and literally no answer to the question LMAO.
Lobster have bacteria which rapidly multiplies after death. It makes for a bad taste and is potentially dangerous. So some chefs take no risks and boil them alive
I tried drowning one once …
How would one humanely kill a lobster?
Here in south Louisiana we boil crawfish alive, i guess to assure freshness, when boiled alive the tail curls inwards, if boiled dead, the tail remains long and straight…so when eating them we avoid the “straight” tails, “Don’t eat the dead ones” is a common phrase
I imagine even if they do not feel pain. They most likely release stress hormones/chemical, which would make the food more foul. Either way, a clean kill from a good life is the best food to eat. Kill, cook, eat.
My chef friend said when they realise they would die they emit poison, they won’t under fire, or you can chop their head in specific point very fast idk or something like this don’t quote me
Maybe a bit ye but I don’t think most people waste their time worrying about what a lobster, crab or prawn thinks or feels. I’m certainly not going to lose any sleep over it and will continue to chuck them in the boiling water, it’s always worked out fine for me.
There is debate as to whether crustaceans feel pain in the way that we do. They might simply register the damage instead of feeling it as suffering. Simply having a nervous system is not enough to feel pain.
My opinion is that we should err on the side of caution until we know for sure though. So I’m against boiling them alive.
Shellfish need to be cooked super quick after death for health/safety reasons. Some people think lobsters and crabs can’t feel pain and will throw them in a boiling pot alive. Or maybe they just don’t care. These people are mean and wrong. Please kill your food before you start cooking it.
Killing is cruel. Period. Now, is killing by boiling to death vs some other method even worse…probably.
They aren’t anymore, usually.
Mussels and clams are also cooked alive. Oysters are eaten alive.
Anything related to eating a sentient living being ( no, plants do in fact, feel no pain), is cruel. Lobsters included.
Feel free to hit me with reports, down votes and whatever makes you feel better
Yeah it’s cruel
Not if their cooked in beer 😂
Taste buds tho
Yes. It’s horrible
Cruel? What
I was told they go in head first, which fries their brain killing them instantly.
It is cruel and unnecessary. Most people kill it first with a cleaver. The only thing you HAVE to do alive is crawlfish because you can’t kill everyone unfortunate. But you can put them on ice.
Lobsters are bugs anyways 🙈
They almost always are killed first. Boiling alive isn’t common anymore
I don’t know, but my father in law was making crawfish one time and they were trying to crawfish their way out of the pot lol
My dad taught me a trick, and there’s very little info about this method. You fill your sink with warm water, put the lobster upside down for 5m while the big pot of water is boiling.
After 5m, you can take the bands off the claws, and its as if they are knocked out. However, they are still alive due to very slow movement in the legs. I put them in the boiling water upside down, and they don’t flap their tales at all.
If anyone has any information about this method, I’d like to know more.
I have always pressed a knife through the back of their “head” and brought the knife down to split their head in half.
Would it be better to shoot a nail through its head?
In France it’s forbidden since a couple of years
They’re typically killed first with a knife cut through the head.
There’s plenty of evidence they do feel pain and non that they don’t from experience.
Do the right thing and dispatch just before cooking.
It’s not worth the if.
I saw Gordon Ramsey on one of those cooking competition shows where he will show the contestants the correct way to prepare the meat at the start of the challenge.
This episode they were doing lobster, and he explained how it’s gotta be awful to be boiled alive, and he demonstrated where to correctly place the knife and how to instantly kill them.
One hot shot just threw the lobster in there without killing it and Gordon lost his shit, immediately kicking him out. He earned my respect that day.
Former chef here. I’ve never prepared a living lobster myself, but you’re basically meant to take your chef’s knife, and place the tip between its eyes and press down through its brain to kill it just before boiling.
As far as I’m aware, the sound that comes from the lobster while cooking is the air inside the shell getting heated and escaping during the cooking process.