Larger lobsters tend to have thicker muscle fibers which make the lobster meat tough, rubbery, and hard to chew. Even lobster tails from large lobsters can be tough to eat because of the thick muscle fibers. The reason is that the thicker muscle fibers run in the same direction, which is called the grain of the muscle fibers.Muscle fibers usually grow in a single direction. This directionality of muscle fibers contributes to it becoming tough to eat. This is a well-known fact about beef some cuts of beef that are from the muscle areas. The muscle grains make certain steaks tough to eat steak.The same thing happens with larger lobsters.But there’s a trick that can be used to make large lobsters with thick muscle fibers easy to eat. The solution is to cut the meat against the grain. So if the muscle grain runs horizontally, from left to right, you cut the meat vertically, across the grain.
Why Large Lobsters Taste Bad
Another reason why large lobsters may not taste as good as smaller lobsters is the method of cooking.Recipes and methods for cooking lobsters are optimized for their size. The cooking procedure for something small is different from how one cooks something that is larger. It takes longer for the heat to cook all the way through a large lobster than it does for a smaller lobster.But cooking a colossal size lobster with a longer cooking time causes the outer portions of the meat to overcook and turn rubbery while the inner parts are properly cooked.A similar thing happens when cooking chickens and turkeys. For example, the breast meat is leaner and cooks faster than the dark meat in the thighs and legs. If you pull the chicken out of the oven when the breast meat is done the leg and thigh meat will still be undercooked.
How to Cook a Giant Lobster
The solution for that problem is to butterfly the chicken or turkey so that all parts of the bird receive an equal amount of heat.A similar solution solves the problem of cooking a giant size lobster. A lobster tail from an oversized lobster needs to be removed from the shell so that all sides of the tail can receive an equal amount of heat.The rest of the lobster, if it’s especially huge, needs to be shucked and cooked at varying times. This exposes the meat to heat and allows it to cook evenly.What’s important to keep in mind for cooking large lobsters is to expose as much of the meat as possible to the heat source, whether that’s in an oven or over a flame grill, in order to cook all the meat evenly.Following these steps for cooking a giant lobster results in a good-tasting lobster. It’s clear that the reason a giant lobster tends to not taste as good as a smaller one is that the larger lobster needs to be cooked differently.
Which Size Lobsters Taste Best?
Giant, large, and smaller legal-size lobsters all taste fine. They just need to be cooked differently. That said it’s best to stick to smaller-size lobsters because that’s the most sustainable option. In Maine, it’s not even legal to catch a giant-sized lobster, because large lobsters are needed for maintaining a healthy population of crustaceans.While in other states it may be legal to catch or sell the larger lobsters, large lobsters still require a large amount of planning to cook successfully.Everyone is better off cooking the regular smaller lobsters because they’re easier to cook and don’t require special handling.