Remarks on the Lobster.—It takes a lobster about five years to arrive at maturity, or over ten inches in length. The spawning season depends upon the temperature of the water. Along the Sound, the season begins in June, and ends in September.

The Season for Lobster.—Lobsters are at their best before the spawning season. They are then filled with roe, or coral as the red spawn is called by some. This is a great delicacy, and is highly esteemed by epicures. After the spawning season, which is late in the summer, they are in very poor condition, and should not be offered for sale until cool weather.

The green part in the body of the lobster is called the tom-alley by New-England folks. It is excellent eating.

The external spawn adhering to the tail of the female lobster, when not highly developed, is edible, and is used in garnishing and making lobster butter, paste, and cardinal-fish sauces.

It is a curious fact, that the lobster changes or re-makes a shell from eight to ten times the first year, five to seven the second, three to four the third, and from two to three the fourth year. So says Professor G. O. Sars of Norway, about the European lobster, whose habits agree more or less closely with those of the American lobster.

Soft-shell Lobster not edible.—After the fifth year the change of shell is only annual. A soft-shell or shedder lobster, unlike the soft-shell crab, is not edible, and if eaten is likely to produce ill effects. In a soft condition the lobster itself is sick, and is therefore unfit for food.

Selecting Lobsters.—Always select a firm shell, of a deep dark-green color. Light-colored, thin-shelled lobsters are likely to be lean and poor. When plunged into the boiling water, the joints contract, and the tail draws under, provided the lobster was alive at the time of immersion. If dead when boiled, the tendons are relaxed, the claws hang loosely, the tail will not possess a spring-like tenacity when straightened out. Select the former, and reject the latter.

Value of the Lobster as Food.—According to Professor Atwater of Middletown, Conn., the nutritive value of the flesh of the lobster, compared with beef as a standard and reckoned at 100, is 61 to 97. Forty per cent of the lobster is edible, the remainder is shell and waste.

Buckland says, “That phosphorus exists in large quantities, may be easily proved. A lobster in hot weather, when it ceases to be fresh, assumes a highly phosphorescent appearance when seen in the dark, equal if not superior to that of a glow-worm or luminous centipede. This light increases by friction.... The presence of phosphorus in the lobster is of great importance to the consumers of these sea luxuries. There is no substance which conveys phosphorus so readily into the human system in an agreeable form, and which the system so readily and quickly assimilates, as the flesh of crabs and lobsters.”

Broiled Lobster.—Select alive and active lobster not less than ten and a half inches long. (If below this measurement, the dealer should be arrested for breaking the law which protects the lobster.) Split it in two lengthwise, which instantly kills it. Remove the entrail through the fleshy part of the tail, and the crop or stomach near the head. This done, there are two ways of preparing it for table. One is as follows:—

Remove the flesh from the tail, and brush over it a little melted butter or olive-oil; broil it gently, but not too well done. Heat the shell, put the meat back in the shell again, add more butter, salt, pepper, and serve on hot plates. The body parts may be boiled, and furnish dainty pickings for a late meal.

The other way is that which is generally adopted by restaurants. Brush a little butter over the entire half of the green lobster; broil the shell side thoroughly first, then turn, and broil the other. Serve with maitre-d’hÔtel sauce.

A lobster that has once been boiled and then broiled is so thoroughly over-cooked as to be very indigestible.

Lobster Croquettes, with Pease.—Boil one-half pint of milk, thicken it with a tablespoonful of flour, and let it become cold. Mince the meat of a one-pound can of lobster, or one pound of fresh lobster; when very fine, add a saltspoonful of salt and half a saltspoonful of white pepper. Moisten the lobster mince with the thickened milk, and work the whole to a paste; add very little bread-crumb if too thin; let it become amalgamated over the range, and place in the ice-box until wanted; then shape it into neat rolls or cones; dip them in egg and crumbs, and fry in plenty of hot fat. Arrange the forms neatly on a dish, put round them a border of pease, and serve.

Lobsters en Brochette.—Instead of boiling the lobster-tails, cut them in pieces, and arrange these on small skewers, alternated with small pieces of bacon; brush melted butter over them, and either broil or bake them; serve with sauce tartare (which see on p. 84).

Deviled Lobster.—Take two live lobsters, remove the tails, split them in two, and make several incisions in them crosswise. Mix together half a teaspoonful of salt, a saltspoonful each of dry mustard and curry, and half a saltspoonful of white pepper, add a tablespoonful of oil; mix, spread it over the lobsters, and broil them. When done, return to the shells, which should have been kept hot for the purpose; pour a little melted butter over them, and serve.

Stewed Lobster, À la CrÉole.—Remove the tail part of the meat from three green lobsters; split them in two lengthwise; remove the thread-like intestine. Melt an ounce of butter in a deep frying-pan; add the lobster; toss it for a few minutes in the butter; add salt and pepper and half a pint of hot water; cover, and simmer three-quarters of an hour; drain, and reduce the water one-half by rapid boiling. Put in a saucepan half an ounce of butter and a tablespoonful of minced onion; fry brown, and add three peeled and sliced tomatoes, one sweet pepper, four okra pods cut small, and half a teaspoonful of salt. Allow these to cook fifteen minutes, add the broth, and simmer until reduced to a pulp; rub through a sieve; put this puree on a hot dish, place the lobster on top, add a little lemon-juice, and serve.

Curry of Lobster.—Remove the meat from two boiled lobsters, cut it into neat pieces; take all green fat and coral, and set them aside; mix the green fat with a heaping spoonful of curry-powder. Squeeze out the juice of three limes, and add to it half a teaspoonful of powdered sugar. Put into a frying-pan an ounce of butter; when creamed add a teaspoonful of minced onion browned a little; now add the mixed curry-powder; dissolve a teaspoonful of rice-flour in cold water, add this to a pint of hot water or soup-stock, simmer until thick; now add the lobster, and simmer twenty minutes longer. Wash and dry the coral, separate it. Prepare a border of rice on a dish, and over it sprinkle the coral and eggs (if any); pour the curry in the centre, and serve.

Lobster Salad.—Take two live hen (female) lobsters; boil them thirty minutes; drain. When cold, break them apart; crack the claws, and if the tail-fins are covered with eggs remove them carefully. Take out the sand-pouch found near the head; split the fleshy part of the tail in two lengthwise, remove the small long entrail found therein. Adhering to the body-shell may be found a layer of creamy fat; save this, and also the green fat in the body of the lobster (called tom-alley by New-Englanders), and the coral. If celery is used, tear the lobster into shreds with forks; if lettuce, cut the lobster into half-inch pieces. Place the salad herb in a bowl, add the lobster and the fat, and pour over it a rich mayonnaise; garnish with the claws and heads, tufts of green, hard-boiled eggs, etc. The lobster eggs may be separated, and sprinkled over the mayonnaise. The coral is used for coloring mayonnaise, and also butter, which is then used in decorating salmon and other dark fish used in salads.