Lobsters and crabs cooked in boiling water feel no pain.

[resting rifleman]

Originally Posted by Paul Burgess

I can see how you can use a knife to bump off a lobster humanely before cooking. How do you do it for crabs as their heads don't really poke out?

My Rick Stein book says something about sliding a skewer between its eyes and then lifting up the tail flap and shoving it in there!!. I tried this once but couldn't get anything through the armour. I thought it was more humane to stop this butchery and just get it in the pot.

Does anyone have any experience on this?

Paul

no experience, never killed either a crab or lobster before immersing, they have been cooked this way for ever, lobbys into boiling water, crab into cold.
i suspect this is to do with the fact that the meat deteriorates quickly from the moment the annimal dies. it has always been a rule in my family not to risk eating any shelfish if it aint alive when you cook it. TOO RISKY! and we have been fishermen for as long as there have been fish.
lobsters and crab prefer dark places presumably for the protection afforded,(which given the "fight or flight" response that must occur when suddenly dropped back into his own environment) this is probably the reason for them scuttling around the pan, not tap dancing on the hot plate as the "poor little things" gang would have us believe.
You can try this experiment, next time you take a crab, kill it "humanely" on the boat, tear off the legs and claws, get ashore, drive around/home for a couple of hours, get in have a cuppa, cook the claws and legs, sit back and wait for it to cool, eat, and let me know how ill you get.

[Martyn Ward]

Having read all this thread, I have to say I find it a touch disturbing.

You lot must be the kind of people that my mother warned me about, 'coz if I got crabs from any of you, the last thing I'd worry about is how to cook 'em!

Having said that, how do you cook them, do you have a scalding hot shower or do you pick them off into a pan???

(Yes, as always, I dknow where my coat is!)

[Tonto]

Oh dear, Derek and Clive anyone?
(Peter Cook; Dudley Moore)

[Garf]

I've been resisting posting this for weeks, but am I really, honestly, truly the only person that doesn't actually give a shit as long as they taste nice?

[JAG]

Only tried crabs once... Christmas Eve one year at the "clinic" at Oldchurch Hospital sorted me out though Dirty cow tried to blame me aswell! Please be aware this happened eighteen years ago and up in Jockland. Maybe swapping partners wasn't the best decision I made that night

[Norseman]

Originally Posted by Garf

I've been resisting posting this for weeks, but am I really, honestly, truly the only person that doesn't actually give a shit as long as they taste nice?

Nope. We should start a club.

K

[Simon TW]

Originally Posted by Norseman

Nope. We should start a club.

K

Sorry for the hijack.. How is everything Kyrre. I was talking ti Jules last week and we both said the we hadn't seen you on the board.

[Adrian Kelland]

Originally Posted by Norseman

Nope. We should start a club.

K

Can we use it on seals?

All ready running...

[Simon TW]

Originally Posted by turbanator

"You are what you eat",

work it out

[Adrian Kelland]

Originally Posted by Paul Burgess

I can see how you can use a knife to bump off a lobster humanely before cooking. How do you do it for crabs as their heads don't really poke out?

My Rick Stein book says something about sliding a skewer between its eyes and then lifting up the tail flap and shoving it in there!!. I tried this once but couldn't get anything through the armour. I thought it was more humane to stop this butchery and just get it in the pot.

Does anyone have any experience on this?

Paul

Paul,

I have done the flap lift, skewer through the revealed hole and wiggle thing. Not surprisingly, the crab gets pretty upset and hard to manage.

I just go with the boiling pot.

Adrian