A popular shellfish valued for its rich juicy meat. The European and American Lobster are the most popular of the Lobster family. The American Lobster, the larger of the two, is found in the western North Atlantic and is reddish brown in color with some brown spots. The European Lobster is found in the North Sea, the Irish Sea, the English Channel, and the Bay of Biscay, and is black in color with some pale yellow blotches. Lobster is best purchased live but can also be bought already cooked, cleaned and shelled. It is the Lobster tail and the lobster claws that contain the majority of the meat in a Lobster. The tail provides one large piece of meat while the claws have small narrow strips of meat.
In some regions, Dublin Bay prawns are sold as shellfish referred to as lobsterettes or small lobsters. Also known as a Langoustine, a Langoustino or scampi in Europe, this species of prawn looks more like a crayfish in both size and appearance than a Lobster.
To clean a cooked a Lobster, cut it in half, lengthwise, with a sharp knife and remove and discard the black vein and the sand sac at the base of the head. Remove the meat from the shell and the tail and then twist off the claws and crack open to remove the meat. To make it easier to remove the meat, the use of a Lobster Cracker will work as a pliers for cracking apart the hard shell.
