After letting them freeze, the lobsters were then thawed in 28-degree sea water. The result was that only two came back to life out of thirty lobsters. Isn't that surprising?
Properly prepared, Maine lobster will keep frozen for 9-12 months.
A Connecticut company says its fro zen lobsters sometimes come back to life when thawed. began freezing lobsters with a technique it used for years on salmon after an offhand suggestion by some workers. It found that some lobsters revived after their subzero sojourns.
When an uncooked lobster is frozen, the meat actually expands and is tightly compressed within the shell walls. When you thaw the uncooked lobster the meat then tears and shreds as the meat shrinks and disconnects from the wall that it was once connected.
Lobsters and other shellfish have harmful bacteria naturally present in their flesh. Once the lobster is dead, these bacteria can rapidly multiply and release toxins that may not be destroyed by cooking. You therefore minimise the chance of food poisoning by cooking the lobster alive.
Techniques for freezing lobster meat varied: soak it in milk to reduce freezer burn, wrap it tightly so there was no air left in the packaging and so forth.
First, they immersed about thirty lobsters in the minus 40-degree brine. After letting them freeze, the lobsters were then thawed in 28-degree sea water. The result was that only two came back to life out of thirty lobsters. Isn't that surprising?
Freeze lobster in the shell to help keep the meat from drying out. Simply wrap the whole lobster or lobster portions in moisture-vapor resistant wrapping and freeze. Lobster can be cooked and then frozen, but the quality will not be as good.
A lobster can live out of the water for a couple of days if kept in a moist and cool place. How can a lobster live so long out of water? A lobster can extract the oxygen from the air, but in order to do this its gills must be kept moist or they will collapse.
Most likely, yes, say animal welfare advocates. Lobsters belong to a family of animals known as decapod crustaceans that also includes crabs, prawns, and crayfish.
But they can live up to 24 hours out of the water, if cared for properly. Live lobsters can be kept or packed in wet newspaper or seaweed, if available.
Death may ensue when a lobster is exposed to a rapid rise in temperature, while stress is reduced to decreases in temperature. Therefore before cooking, keep lobsters in the coldest part of your refrigerator. And to sedate or even dispatch a lobster, chill it in the freezer for 10-15 minutes.
Freezing Live Lobsters: Just Don't Do It
Safety aside, freezing and thawing lobster prior to cooking it will lead to enzymes leaching into the meat, resulting in a mushy, unappetizing texture.
Don't place lobsters in tap water. They are saltwater creatures, and fresh water will kill them. Don't seal lobsters in an air-tight container. Don't store lobsters in stagnant water.
Scientists have found that it can take lobsters between 35 – 45 seconds to die when plunged into a pot of boiling water — and if they are dismembered their nervous system can still function for up to an hour.
Temperature: Lobsters should ideally be stored in a fridge that is around 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Do not put your lobster in a freezer as it is too cold. Moisture: Lobsters need to be kept moist, but not wet, to stay fresh. Cover them with seaweed or damp newspaper.
Keeping Live Lobster in Your Fridge
Wrap your lobster in a few layers of cool, damp—not dripping wet—newspaper. Cool water will keep your lobster's metabolism low so they remain docile and sluggish. Dry lobsters are more likely to die before you're ready to prepare them. Use saltwater to dampen the newspapers.
Fresh live lobsters can stay in your refrigerator one to two days. Keep them in the back, where the refrigerator is coldest. They must be kept alive until you cook them. Do not store live lobsters in any kind of water—it will kill them.
To make sure, pick up the lobster - if the tail curls under the body, it's alive. This test is especially important with lobsters that have been stored on ice because they're so sluggish, it's sometimes hard to see movement.
When a lobster dies, its tail loses its elasticity and ability to curl under the body. When plunged into boiling water, a live lobster curls its tail under. It remains in that position during and after cooking.
Once the lobster is cooked (I personally prefer steaming), let it cool down for a few minutes, either with cold water, an ice bath or at room temperature. Remember that the lobster keeps cooking after being steamed, so I prefer to shock it with ice to stop the cooking immediately to prevent over-cooking.
Fresh lobster is a higher quality than processed or frozen lobster because it has not been altered in any way. If there is a time that you need to store, freeze or thaw your seafood though, here are some tips to preserve the quality and handle your seafood safely.
Neither insects nor lobsters have brains. For an organism to perceive pain it must have a complex nervous system. Neurophysiologists tell us that lobsters, like insects, do not process pain.
“Nope! A sound can emit from the shells of the lobsters — a high-pitched sound — but it's due to steam escaping through a fissure in the shell, not the lobsters 'screaming,'” she explained. This doesn't necessarily mean the cooking process is pain-free for the lobster.
Do Lobsters Feel Pain When Cut In Half? Again, all the evidence shows that they do. And considering their nervous systems cannot go into shock, they are likely to feel this pain for up to an hour after being cut in half.