While the early settlers ate lobster, the crustacean was not considered the delicacy it is today. It rated then about as highly as a piece of chicken today. In Of Plymouth Plantation, William Bradford writes, as more ships arrived with English immigrants, the best dish the original Colonists could offer their friends “was a lobster or a piece of fish without bread or anything else but a cup of fair spring water.”
Lobsters are available in New England year round but certainly not in the same quantities they once were. Many claim autumn is the best time for American lobster. The summer molt is completed, and the lobsters have grown into their new, hardened shells. Most of us simply boil our lobsters—in sea water, preferably, but if no ocean water is readily available, sea-salted water will do. We enjoy cracking open the shells and dipping the succulent meat in melted butter. It’s a messy business, but well worth the effort.
Boiled lobster
Fill a large pot approximately three-quarters full of sea water
or salted water. Use two tablespoons of salt per quart of water. Bring the
water to a boil. Put in the live lobsters (don't attempt to remove the bands on the front claws), one at a time, cover and bring the
water to a boil again. Lower the heat and simmer about 15 minutes for a small
lobster (up to 1-1/4 pounds), 20 minutes for a medium lobster (1-1/2 pounds)
and 25 minutes for a large lobster.
