Wednesday, July 17

10E2211: Food DIY - Lobster Bake in a Wheelbarrow - w/ Tim Hayward




As the FT's Tim Hayward (10e favourite) explains, this is at once a pretty ingenious idea (creating a sand/rock/charcoal/seaweed clam bake in a wheel barrow), but as importantly a chance to get close to your food, re-engage with eating and cooking.

Have been thinking about lobsters quite a bit recently. Not least because they are cheap (again) but also reexamining the cooking of them. Talking about killing them first before cooking them... For humane reasons but also safety - flapping tails and boiling water don't mix. I worked at Nantucket's The Chanticleer for Chef Jean-Charles in 1993 (in the dining room - FPC - fkin plate carrier) and even he insisted on the bugs being killed first before the next stage - they were then injected with champagne and butter, Ronco style, before being baked. Mmmmm.

It has stumped scientists and I certainly don't have the answer but the 2 popular and supposedly humane methods - bisecting the head either through top of shell or flipped over - both take a strong sharp knife and a steady hand. This is home cookery so perhaps falls into the "if you can't do you maybe you shouldn't eat it" category? As Trevor Corson (author "Secret Life of Lobsters") says "we don’t know exactly whether crustaceans feel pain or not. But... it seems a safe assumption that being boiled alive probably sucks."