Lobster Tail

Got a 2 lb Maine frozen lobster tail as a gift.

Have cooked smaller tails, no problem, both Broiler or Charcoal grill.

Any suggestions? Method or time?
ONLY IF YOU HAVE DONE IT !!!!

THX,

Wally Wade

walter wade wrote:Got a 2 lb Maine frozen lobster tail as a gift.

Have cooked smaller tails, no problem, both Broiler or Charcoal grill.

Any suggestions? Method or time?
ONLY IF YOU HAVE DONE IT !!!!

THX,

Wally Wade

Steam it. (for a large tail like that, start with 15 - 20 minutes, then check for doneness.) Make sure you defrost it enough to stick a chopstick down the middle of the tail during the steaming process to prevent curling while you cook it.

how do you check for doneness?

Thermopen 140deg

THX

Wally Wade

Defrost, split, broil with plenty of butter.
Grilling usually results in tougher meat but is a nice occasional change for the taste.
Jasper White has a nice prep that involves bourbon and your oven.
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/116 ... ed-lobster
Usually Maine lobsters are not sold as tails but only alive or freshly shucked meat?-Richard

budrichard wrote:Usually Maine lobsters are not sold as tails but only alive or freshly shucked meat?

I got something similar one year - mine was a gift certificate for lobstergram.com . I chose 4 Maine tails, and they were really tasty. (they weren't huge, so no cooking tips to share here)

I prefer broiling with butter.

HI,

Once upon a time, I bought frozen whole lobsters at a market on Argyle Street. I believe they died unexpectedly and were flash frozen. Once 'cooked,' they were watery little devils not worth the time and money spent.

Almost all my lobster experience is cooking live. Early on I did boiling and eventually found my preference in steaming.

A few weeks ago, Jewel's Just4U enticement was 4-ounce cold water lobster tails for 99 cents each. At that price, it was worth taking the dive again.

I have been doing a little research, one can defrost slowly for 24 hours and allow for liquid to leach out. Or put the tails in a bag, then submerge in water for 30 minutes. The impression I get is less liquid will leach out thawing them just before instead of a lingering thaw for 24 hours.

A few years ago, butter poaching lobster was quite the thing. Since my family ultimately dives deep in the butter, maybe this is the way to go. As I recall, you partially cooked the lobster, then finished in the butter. Steaming a four-ounce lobster tail takes 3-4 minutes.

Since something this little cooks so quickly, why not just go all butter all the way? A while back, I conferred with the instant thermometer guru to shoot for a temperature of 135. When it wasn't really red enough, I pulled closer to 150 when the shell was really red.

Anybody already cooked those 99-cent wonders or something that small? Any thoughts?

Regards,
CAthy2

Cathy2 wrote:Anybody already cooked those 99-cent wonders or something that small? Any thoughts?

Not the 99-cent tails but I've used the following recipe with great success with both 4 & 8 oz frozen tails from Costco/Mariano/da-Jewels.

Grilled Lobster Tail Delish .com



Here are my recipe notes, I've made this 5-6 times both grill pan and outside grill.
Notes:
Made a few times on a grill pan and outside grill, works terrific.
Ellen really likes this recipe, special occasion.
Made with both 8 and 4 oz lobster tails, works fine with either.
A good use for the sale grocery tails, 4oz
Skewer is essential.

Decades ago when live Maine lobsters were harder to procure in the MidWest, 16-24oz frozen Rock Lobster tails (Panulirus cygnus )were available and if prepared the right way, they were very good.
Now what is available at a low cost is who knows what from who knows where?
As a child we vacationed in Maine when Lobster was 69 cents/# at the lobster pound.
The superiority of the live Homarus Americanus to any frozen Tail called Lobster available these days precludes me from any other purchase these days.
If I could find some good large Rock Lobster, I would try it split and grilled as we used to do.-Richard

Gary,

What was your defrosting process: overnight or a 30-minute quick defrost?

Thanks!

***

Budrichard,

I looked up the Rock Lobster. It's export represents 20% of the value of Australia's fish exports. It should be available, though likely rather pricey.

Supreme Lobster's website suggests they may have it. If you get on their email list, you can be alerted to various fish when they are in season.

My parents are Maine Lobster devotees. We lived near a small Massachusetts town where a strip club was located. To placate the locals, they offered Friday night lobster dinners for $1.50 circa 1965. My parents would order a lobster for everyone. My sister and I were fascinated by the antennas and barely ate the bread crumbs on the tail. Mom and Dad finished our food for us.

Grandma came with us once and ordered the chicken dinner costing more than the lobster. My Dad complained about that for years.

They did not have much luck with warm water lobster tails, so that was never on our radar.

Regards,
Cathy2


Supreme Lobster & Seafood Company 220 E. North Ave., Villa Park, IL 60181 – 630.832.6700

Cathy2 wrote:What was your defrosting process: overnight or a 30-minute quick defrost?

None.

I've never bought small lobster tails frozen, always impulse buy from Costco Roadshow, Mariano's point of sale kiosk or Ellen has bought them at Jewel when she was picking up flowers, for some odd reason she likes the flowers at Jewel.

That said, if I were to defrost it would be slow as possible to avoid moisture loss.

The only quick defrost items I might eat are frozen enchiladas from crap-a-freeze-a-rama, and then its freezer/microwave/belly/toilet.

HI,

The 99 cent lobster tails from Jewel were terrific.

From the recipe Gary linked to, I cut open the backs and inserted chop sticks to keep them straight. Instead of grilling, I butter-poached the lobster tails. It was important to keep the butter under 180 degrees. The chopstick made for an easy way to flip them.

I had four tails in a 10-inch frying pan with tails alternating top-to-bottom for a better fit. I found turning them on alternating sides worked better than belly-to-back. When the temperature hit close to 140, the pan went to the table.

These lobster tails were not stringy or mealy or a subpar experience. This was paired with a steak cooked in a butter bath. I felt I overcooked the steaks, though everyone else gave me an odd look and kept eating.

Tomorrow, I have another steak to cook in a butter bath. I am sure this time I will get it right. Fortunately, the lobster worked out beautifully.

Thanks for all the tips. All the information helped make this experience work out just right.

Regards,
Cathy2

Cathy2 wrote:... Tomorrow, I have another steak to cook in a butter bath. I am sure this time I will get it right....

Regards,
Cathy2

I'm happy for you that it turned out well. Not a seafood, or fish person, but the steak sounds interesting. I've never heard of this method, and googling doesn't bring anything up for me by that name, would you mind providing me a link to this method? I can find butter basting, so if that is the same thing, just let me know. Thanks.

Hi,

My bad on terminology, it is pan-seared butter-basted thick-cut steak.

I have been a reverse-sear steak or rib roast person for some years. I normally would have done this, but the outside climatic tempertures make me wince. I opted for a shorter spike of high temperature cooking method instead.

For today's lunch, I cooked potatoes for mashed potatoes first. Once they were mashed, I started cooking the steak. It was supposed to take no more than 15 minutes. First four minutes, I flipped the steak every 30 seconds, then added the butter, garlic and shallots. Somehow the meat jumped from almost 120 to over 130 very quickly. I will pay closer attention for the second steak tomorrow.

The lobster tails takes less than ten minutes. I prepared this while the steak rested. That I got right. Plus peas straight from the freezer, which the microwave handled beautifully.

My family still found the steak flavorful, but I like it far more rare. This is a cooking I method I knew of, but never tried before. You have likely seen it, because it makes a great visual for television: pan tilted, bubbly fat and the cook spooning hot fat rapidly over the steak.

After the main course, we had an ice berg wedge salad with freshly made blue cheese dressing, thinly slivered red onion and chopped cranberries. Served on a chilled plate.

My sister made a chocolate cake with chocolate ganache frosting.

It was my parent's wedding anniversary, which originally had an October date. On days like today, I wish they had stuck to October because dinner would have been more welcome on a cooler autumn day.

You work with what you have ... the theme of 2020!

Regards,
CAthy2

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

My bad on terminology, it is pan-seared butter-basted thick-cut steak.

Regards,
CAthy2

Thank you Cathy, and I'm sure it was a marvellous time for all.

Cooked a couple of the Jewel 99¢ tails tonight using the method Gary posted, subbing out some of the butter with miso, alongside some shishitos. Quite moist and tasty, but I don't remember lobster tails clinging that much to the shell: we mainly got shreds. Cooked too long? Not enough?

JoelF wrote:don't remember lobster tails clinging that much to the shell: we mainly got shreds. Cooked too long? Not enough?

Maybe cooked too long, most likely freezer burn or simply frozen too long and they started to dehydrate a bit.

Slow defrosting helps. Overkill for 99cent lobster tail but If I really want to slowly defrost, which helps retain moisture, I set a rack on a sheetpan, cater wrap stick in fridge for a day or two. I have a gifted A7 Wagyu 28-day dry-age bone-in strip in the freezer waiting for this treatment.

I don't always follow this advice but one should buy frozen seafood frozen not defrosted at the store, that way you know how it was handled, at least one step of the way.

An easy trick to ~help~ insure proper freezing is to avoid packages with ice crystals in them. If you see ice formed under the package it means the product started to defrost, expelled some moisture and then refroze solid. Thus impairing quality to a degree.

Nice add on the miso, going to have to try that.

G Wiv wrote:Nice add on the miso, going to have to try that.

What I didn't use on the tails while grilling got a dollop of mayo mixed in to serve as dip for the shishitos (and the lobster shreds too).

JoelF wrote:What I didn't use on the tails while grilling got a dollop of mayo mixed in to serve as dip for the shishitos (and the lobster shreds too).

Nice. I saved your previous shishito dip, looked tasty, though I have not tried it yet.
Blistered in a blazing cast iron pan with just a splash of oil. They were accompanying a teriyaki skirt steak (Serious Eats' tare), so I made a dipping sauce of about 1/2 C Duke's mayo, 1/3 C white miso, juice of 1 lime, 1 large clove garlic microplane-grated, 1 Tbs pure maple syrup, 1.5 tsp dark sesame oil