OT: Late Woosday Entry, and a Lobster (non-BGE)

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

the irises are in their second week, out in back. We have a cobble retaining wall that runs maybe 45 feet, and the irises are at eye height when you are standing on the brick. they fill in about 20 feet. really amazing when they are all blooming like they were end of last week. this is the last of them. they need to be split. getting a bit crowded and one year we lost a bunch to damp, maybe because of the crowding.



that's the end of the wall, near the neighbor's house.

some close-ups:








on sunday we had my parents down for lobster. they got home early may, but just as they arrived, the weather here turned cooler. we wanted to have them down for lobster, since they don't see much lobster during the florida winter. we send them one for their anniversary, but they are down there 9 months it seems. long drought.



this was a seven pounder. it was that, or i had to buy a pantload of small pound-and-a-halfs. ideally, we like 2-1/2 pounders per person. but this worked out. got a couple smalls as back-up. my son ate a 1-1/2 pounder, and a claw off of a 1-3/4. we split the big one. pincher for me, crusher for my father (the meat was almost 2 inches thick), and my wife and mother split the tail and legs/body. the claw filled a dinner plate. had to use the back of a hatchet to crack the shell.

we also had my wife's stuffed clams off the BGE actually, home made. best ever, and she doesn't know what she did differently.... hahaha

here's larry with the 1-3/4 lobster. that's a full size coleman cooler.



no... not tough at all.
prices here are 4.99 a pound. a dollar more than what we paid in january.

not very extravagant

Frank from Houma

Wow! Check out that lobster - I haven't seen one that big in person. Nice.

The irises look pretty happy - thanks for sharing.

Photo Egg

Sounds like a great meal.
Have not had good lobster in years.
Darian

Weekend Warrior

Oh man, yer killin' me!! The last lobstahs I had were bought just off Hampton Beach last year and taken to my sisters after the fest. $4.99/lb.!!! Gaaaaah! (and I'm thinking about paying $8.50 for hot dogs) haha

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

when i was a kid, we'd get them from a few sources. brother of a lobsterman lived next door and we'd get, um, 'smalls'. as in undersized.

my dad worked with a guy that had a lobster boat too. he also raced those hydroplane boats, and during WORK my dad and he would sharpen his props to razor sharp (for the race boat). we'd get lobsters as a thank you. i remember a six pounder, but mom told me the other night he was actually 7-1/2. just a bit bigger than this one.

i've told this story before, but once asked what was for dinner and mom said "lobster". as a spoiled kid (as far as lobster goes anyway), i replied "ugh. not a-gain"

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

lobstersonline has semi-decent pricing for havign them shipped. prices are just above retail, plus next-morning/overnight shipping...

it's how we send them to the folks. runs maybe 90 bucks for a four-pounder.

fishlessman

i always par boil/par steam the big ones, i know you just steam. how long to steam a 7 pounder. the camp should be in full bloom this weekend with those funny looking daffalilleys :laugh:

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

where'd you gettem in Hampton? last summer they were maybe 5.99? still not bad.


you can get them anywhere (supermarkets, etc.). you'll feel the pinch if you go to brown's or the guys acrss the road. those are tourist prices!

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

i find the big ones need a little more finesse than i can muster after four tanqueray-and-tonics.

i roughly follow the "12 minutes for the first pound and 3 minutes a pound for the remainder". that meant this one was at 30 minutes by the book. but the pincher claw can overcook in that time, being thinner. maybe pull that off at 20 minutes.

and i take it out maybe 5 minutes early because you will have carry-over.

i never know how to time them boiled. the cold drops the boil to nothing, and it takes forever to come back to boil (i don't have the propane burner).

those irises are from my mother in law's garden. gave them to us when we moved in 10+ years ago. they have spread, maybe tripling in number

Weekend Warrior

Got them at Defiant Lobster Co. just off 101 on Landing road between Hampton and the Beach. Looked like a mom & pop shop. Nice people, but they charged me $6+/lb for 3 2.5 pounders.

fishlessman

the big ones we put rocks in the bottom of the pot for added heat mass and only enough water to cover a third to half of the lobster and turn the lobster over halfway thru, a 5 pounder is about 35 min but i would like to try steamed only over the rocks with a big one. we were doing pound and a halfs steamed over rocks last summer at 13 minutes so pretty close to your rule of 12 plus three per pound

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

6 a pound at the height of the season isn't bad for the 2.5 pounders.

a true lobster market like theirs will often bump the price of the 2.5 pounders up by a dollar because those are pretty popular. most folks buy the cheap-o chicken lobsters, but they sell a lot of the bigger ones like yours, and get a slight premium for them. oddly, because many folks think the bigger ones are tough, the price often drops back to the regular rate for anything say 4 pounds or more. it's why we started getting them. cheaper, and we divide it between two (wife and me).

you didn't get nailed. prices have been low all winter, but 5.99 a pound is pretty typical.

Lawn Ranger

One of my favorite flowers! Very nice.

Mike

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

call me and i will help out next time.
hahaha

sounds like you have a good method.

i like the idea of the rocks. especially if they were from the ocean. you boil with seawater?

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

i wonder if they are a type of orchid...?

Ripnem

SS,

You wanna talk Lobster drought...

I need to change that soon

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

Isn't SPAM a regional delicacy? Invented in Minnesota?

I wonder what it would cost me to have a can of SPAM shipped east. i hear it is much better there than here :laugh:

Ripnem

Wouldn't cost you a penny. you would make a few others proud as well. :P

How many cans ya want?

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

ummm. gonna hold off for now i think. hahaha

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

this is cheaper than you'll find on the web elsewhere, even though it is still a good bit more than twice what we pay locally. shipping is extra.

ends up at 20 per pound for a five pound Maine Lobster, in case anyone has a hankering that can't be satisfied with pearl hot dogs....

>>Click: Five-Pound Lobster

fishlessman

at the beach house ive used the water, its about half fresh water with the saco dumping in there. river stones at camp

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

it's a little less than half fresh, half seawater too, after my boys were swimming in there last year

fishlessman

i wouldnt drink the tap water there either, it comes from sebago :laugh:

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

uh oh. i hope you bring a mason jar out on the boat?

...no wonder there was a tinge of asparagus....

Unknown

5 pounder? Blech. Lobsters should be 2 pounds max.

Five pounders are considered fertiliser up here.

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

Maybe that's about as big as those Canadian ones grow "up there".

Lobsters don't gain or lose flavor depending on their size. It's only when someone isn't smart enough to know how to cook them that makes them dry or overcooked.

Next you'll tell me soft shell are better/worse than hard shell, as if a lobster changes flavor in 24 hours.

I have eaten lobsters older than you. All sweeter and less of a bottom-feeder than you, too. Now run along, junior.

For someone with nothing in common, and a 23 year old kid, you sure hang around here a lot.

Nuthin better to do? Things slow at the office? Taking a break from texture-mapping someone else's models? :laugh:

Unknown

Everyone knows that younger lobsters are sweeter, same with most fish.

Rather than telling me to run along, I suggest you tell your wife. Her 10K times need some work. Must be a slow day for you as well, eh?

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

That's the best you can come up with, eh Devon?My wife's 10k times? Thank god for Cool Running logs. That frigging time is maybe 5 years old, too. hahaha

what a useless tool. You'd think you'd have more experience,Mr. Internet Master.

Your story about young lobsters is what we natives tell the flat-landers so we can charge them more. Younger lobsters are no sweeter than older. Yet another myth. You seem to vacillate between believing myths, and decrying them.

Your balloon knot tightened up pretty quickly the first time we pulled your 'anonymous' pants down. Here's how it's gonna go. I can throw out a lot more info about you than you can about me. Most folks here know who I am and the rest don't care. Unless you want some crazy flaming ex-lover calling your office asking around for you, trying to get hold of you to pass along some test results, i'd step away right now. :laugh:

Might be odd to have everyone there looking at you funny every time they walk by. I mean, more than they already do.

Mean while, I see what I can do about having my wife get her 10k time up. Some of us didn't peak in highschool.

fishlessman

that's just a landlubber myth, right up there with soft-shells are better :laugh: big lobsters are more difficult to cook properly and a bigger factor is timing the molt, you don't want a lobster that's just about to shed or one that just has shed as the meat cooks grainy. big lobsters can be just as good as the small ones and anything smaller than 2 pounds is really a waste as you don't get all the leg meat.

Unknown

Sure, that sounds like fun. I'll start.

$297,400?

Just to be clear, this is all in good fun.

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

You should remember from buying your condo that appraised value has no correlation to actual value.