Many people object to the common practice of cooking a live lobster by plunging it into boiling water. Those with tender hearts and animal rights philosophies are concerned about the pain the animal experiences and advocate more humane ways of creating lobster dinners.

Scientists have searched for information regarding the amount of pain a lobster is capable of feeling. Lobster lovers everywhere may be surprised at what they found.

A lobster has a very simple brain that consists primarily of a group of nerve endings. The whole brain is about the same size as a grasshopper’s which gives you an idea of how small it is. Since the lobster’s brain is so lacking in complexity, it is obvious that he’s incapable of doing any deep thinking.

Because of this lack, it is also extremely doubtful that a lobster is able to feel pain the way people do. Based on these findings, the practice of cooking live lobsters continues. Three common methods of cooking a live lobster are by steaming, boiling, or grilling.

The method used to steam a lobster starts with putting two inches of seawater or any salted water into the bottom of a four to five gallon pot. This is the ideal configuration for cooking six to eight pounds of lobster. Put a steaming rack into the cold water, and turn the heat on high until the water reaches a rolling boil. Add the lobsters one at a time, put the lid on the pot, and start your timer. It takes about 10 minutes to cook one pound of lobster. A pot of six to eight pounds of lobster will take about an hour to cook. During the cooking time, rearrange the lobsters once.

For every 1 to 2 pounds of lobster you want to boil, add three quarts of water to your large pot. Calculate the total number of gallons of water in the pot, and add one quarter cup of salt for each gallon. Heat the water to a rolling boil and add the lobsters one at a time. It will take about 8 minutes to boil one pound of lobster. Six to eight pounds will take 50 minutes to an hour. Halfway through the cooking time, stir the lobsters.

Before grilling lobsters, you have to parboil them. Use the same procedure you use when boiling lobsters, but only boil them for five minutes. Remove the lobsters immediately and plunge them into cold water to stop the cooking process, and then drain them thoroughly. On a cutting board, lay a lobster on its back. Split it down the center with a sharp knife and remove both the black vein in the tail and the sand sac near the head. Use butter or oil to baste the lobsters before placing them flesh-side down on the grill for five to six minutes. Turn them over, re-baste, and finish cooking another four or five minutes.

There are still people who shy away from lobsters that are cooked live, but most have come to accept the fact that the lobsters do not suffer. Cooking a live lobster is the way to experience the freshest lobster meat available. Not only can you purchase live lobsters at restaurants and supermarkets, there are also many wonderful online seafood shops that promise the very freshest lobster delivered to your door overnight.

Seafood is very healthy, and is available in such wide varieties that it’s hard to go wrong! Everything you need to prepare delicious seafood combo meals can be found at your local grocery store. Seafood combo meals are delicious and very easy to prepare.

When getting your seafood combo meal together it is important to remember that you are getting more that just one seafood item or type of seafood. You will generally get two or more of any type of seafood which is great. This is much better than just having one seafood item with your meal. Having scallops and fresh Maine lobster is much more exciting and definitely a more satisfying experience.

In case you are new to cooking it’s best to start with simpler items, such as shrimp or fish fillets. It’s easiest to prepare things you already like, as your cooking instincts will be more accurate. Of course, if you’re not an experienced cook and your favorite combo is two pound lobster and scallops, it may be best to start with something easier and work your way up. If you’re not sure what kind of food you’d like the most, go to your local grocery and try to find a fresh seafood sampler.

While you are preparing any seafood dish, the easiest cooking method is pan-fry. One very easy starter dish is shrimp pasta. Start with your favorite pasta and a bag of cocktail, or frozen shrimp. It’s fairly easy to find these pre-cooked, so you won’t risk under-cooking the food.

Set out all the ingredients you’ll use. First the pasta and a pot of water to boil it in, then the shrimp and a frying pan, and lastly your favorite oils and spices. For this dish, a good starting point is olive oil, basil leaves, and garlic powder. Start the pasta boiling and heat the frying pan. Pour a small amount of oil in the pan, and add the shrimp. Sprinkle the garlic powder and basil leaves on top, and stir the shrimp around the pan until they’re lightly covered in oil and spices.

When the shrimp begin to sizzle you can turn the heat down slightly, so they quietly simmer in the pan. For added flavor you could add some vegetables, I often add chopped onions and tomatoes. While the pasta finishes the shrimp will simmer, absorbing the flavor of the oil and spices.

When the pasta has reached your preferred softness, strain it and put it on a plate. Pour the complete contents of the frying pan over the pasta, and mix them together. Add a side of garlic bread or a caesar salad and you’ve got a hearty, healthy seafood combo meal! There are an infinite number of seafood combo meals you could cook, the best way to learn is to keep practicing different kinds until you find your favorite!

No need to fret or worry about where to get your tasty seafood combo meal. The internet has brought online seafood vendors literally straight to your kitchen! Visit Quality Fresh Seafood to pick out your seafood combo meal. With such items as overnight delivery being such a readily available option, there is no reason not to be able to enjoy a delicious seafood combo meal.

Most of us have eaten a lobster at least once in our life. We know they’re weird-looking critters, but have you ever thought about where they come from or what type of habitat they live in? There were so many of them around during colonial times that our ancestors could pick them up by hand in ocean tide pools, even though they weren’t considered proper food for anyone but the poor. Now they’re an expensive delicacy which are actively farmed in order to provide for the huge demand.

To see a newborn lobster, you could never imagine it growing up to look like an adult lobster. It is incredibly tiny and misshapen, and its chances of living to reach the adult stage is only 1 in a thousand. While he spends his first two weeks of life floating near the surface of the ocean, he is easy prey for any fish that comes swimming by him. If he lives as long as the fourth stage of life, he will have molted 3 times.

During the fourth stage the lobster swims very well and looks for a permanent place to live on the ocean floor. He may choose a home in a softer habitat, such as the salt marsh peat around Cape Cod, but most generally he’ll choose a harder spot, such as an area with a cobble (small rocks) bottom.

Lobsters choose to live in cobble because it allows them to use its many tunnels and crevices to hide and wait for food to come drifting down. A lot of lobsters live on the Maine coast, because not only does it have the cobble bottom they want, it also has an abundance of clean, cold water.

After molting once more and moving into stage five of his life, the lobster moves into his new ocean bottom home. During his first year he spends the majority of his time hiding in his crevice or tunnel in order to keep from being eaten by his numerous predators. After this first year he spends a lot of time during the next three years hiding in the ocean bottom kelp and seaweed while looking for food.

Adolescent lobsters have great survival instincts that keep them hidden for the first few years of their lives. If he were to swim out in the open ocean when he was still this young, he would be eaten within a matter of a few minutes. When he gets larger he will make another move to an area where there are larger rocks for him to hide in. He might also choose to live in a muddy or sandy area anywhere between the edge of the continental shelf and the shore. Wherever he lives, he will live alone, because he’s not a social creature.

Wherever there are lobsters, there will be fishermen. Between the fishermen and natural predators, most lobsters don’t live very long lives. However, historically some lobsters have been noted to have achieved larger sizes and longer life spans. Colonials, for example, recorded that some of the lobsters they found were five or six feet in length.

Lobsters don’t get the chance to grow as large in this era of modern fishing techniques. The biggest one on record was caught in 1977 just off the coast of Nova Scotia. It measured in at somewhere between three and four feet, and it weighed a mighty 44 pounds, 6 ounces. It was estimated that he was around 100 years old. How about that!