What? You need to "urinate" when cooking lobsters? How do you do it?

Lobster is a high-end seafood ingredient, and many people have only eaten it at wedding banquets. Therefore, most people don’t know how to handle live lobsters, so that when they occasionally buy one and plan to cook it themselves, they find that they don’t know how to start.

A classic topic is: Do lobsters need to "urinate"?

Wait, whose urine is this?

What is lobster "pee"?

The "urine" is actually not the lobster's urine, but the lobster's blood. In other words, releasing "urine" is essentially bleeding the lobster.

Why is it called "urinating" when it is clearly bleeding? A careful observation will reveal that at the top of the lobster's tail, near the side of the tail facing the lower abdomen, there is a hole that can be opened and closed. This is actually the lobster's anus.

Lobster's Anus | Grouper Hunter

Lobster bleeding is done from the lobster's anus, and the blood will eventually flow out of the anus, just like the lobster is peeing, so people in the catering industry call it "urinating" the lobster.

But do lobsters have to "pee"? How do they do it? Do you whistle at them?

Let's start with how to bleed a lobster

Bleeding does not necessarily have to start from the anus of the lobster. You can also start from the mouth, or even cut off the entire head. However, currently the anus is the easiest and most mainstream method. The operation only requires a chopstick, which is directly inserted into the body of the lobster until it reaches the position of the lobster's head.

Poor lobster, raped | Grouper Hunter

The whole chopstick after insertion is shown in the picture | Grouper Hunter

After rubbing it back and forth a few times, take out the chopsticks, then press the lobster's head slightly towards the tail, making sure the lobster is vertical, and you can see the lobster's blood coming out of the anus like urine.

Blood shed | Grouper Hunter

When the lobster's blood first flows out of the anus, it is transparent and colorless, but when it flows into the plate, it changes from colorless and transparent to light blue or blue-black.

Human blood is red because of hemoglobin, but lobsters do not have hemoglobin, but instead have hemocyanin. Hemocyanin, also known as hemocyanin, hemocyanin, and ceruloplasmin, is rich in copper ions. When it flows out of the body and comes into contact with the air, the copper ions combine with oxygen in the air and oxidize to form copper ion oxides.

Therefore, after the lobster's blood flows out of the body, it will change from colorless and transparent to light blue, blue-black, or even black. This oxidation process will also transform the lobster's blood from liquid to a solid like jelly.

Coagulated Blood | Grouper Hunter

Is it necessary to bleed lobsters?

It is best to bleed the lobster before cooking it. Blood is one of the sources of the fishy smell of most seafood, and bleeding can effectively remove the fishy smell. Of course, this does not mean that lobsters cannot be eaten if they are not bled. In Taiwan and Fujian, China, lobster blood is even specially made into lobster blood porridge. It is sometimes difficult to completely distinguish between fishy and fresh. In Taiwan, my country, some people even drink lobster blood raw, only adding some sorghum wine or rice wine to remove the fishy smell.

As for the bled lobster, the most important thing is how to make it taste good! This lobster bought for the purpose of demonstrating how to urinate ended up with the following fates:

After the lobster is bled, the head and body are separated into two parts. Although the lobster head has a lot of shell and little meat, it is definitely the most fresh and sweet part of the whole lobster. Sometimes there is a lot of shrimp paste in the lobster head, which is even more first-class, so the part I am most interested in is the lobster head. The main method of cooking shrimp heads is to make porridge, and porridge is the most recommended. The porridge made from lobster heads and shrimp paste is more fresh, sweeter and more delicious than this in the world (confident.jpg)!

Lobster Porridge | Grouper Hunter

I recommend the simplest method - fry the shrimp heads in oil, add boiling water directly after the shrimp oil is squeezed out, add rice after it is cooked, only salt is needed for seasoning, and finally add some celery.

There are many ways to cook shrimp, such as baked with cheese, steamed with garlic, fried shrimp balls, stir-fried with ginger and scallions, etc. I especially like lobster meat with cheese, the combination of the two is a perfect match, so this time I cooked lobster with cheese and milk. The easiest way to learn is to fry the marinated lobster meat in butter first, then add cheese and milk directly, and finally sprinkle with basil.

Lobster Stew with Cheese | Grouper Hunter

Author: Grouper Hunter

Editor: pee pee shrimp

This article comes from the Species Calendar, welcome to forward

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