Episode 45: Shellfish and Lobster

On this week's episode, we talk first generally about shellfish, the anatomy and history, then we get into the lobster specifically and how it rose from a poor man's protein to a rich man's luxury dish. It's an American tale! We also help out our Food Fight listener battle garlic-induced body odor.

Cooked crabs ready to eat

Disclosure: Some of the links within these show notes are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, we will earn a commission, which helps support our show. This commission comes at no additional cost to you, our wonderful listener!

Let's taco 'bout it!

• Sharon marinated her chicken for Butter Chicken in yogurt from this recipe from Recipe Tin Eats--it really made the recipe! Winter took an Easy Flatbreads class and she's never had sourdough pita bread before--Lucy ate all them at home.
• Harold McGee say that the largest have a claw-span on 12 feet--yikes! I think that stat is based on the Japanese spider crab.
• Crawfish or crayfish boils are big in Louisiana/southern US and Sweden.

Grilled shrimp in soup

• When shellfish is killed, the liver enzymes start breaking down the flesh, hence sometimes mushy seafood--ew! Those digestive enzymes get inactivated during cooking.
• Marine biologists recommend putting the crab or lobster in iced sea water to anesthetize them.
• By the way, seafood is Sharon's desert island food.
• When hearing "lobster", Sharon thinks of Rock Lobster by the B52s and the Red Lobster restaurant. Winter thinks of lobster as being a rich man's food.
• The lobster has a rags-to-riches story. Lobster was considered a poor man's protein, because they were so plentiful. The lobster was kinda considered the rat of the sea. Indentured servants and inmates were generally fed it, but they didn't like it!

• A smack boat were specifically designed boats with holds that allowed seawater to circulate.
• Lobster was often canned in the past. And it was served on the trains as folks started traveling west. It then started becoming more popular among the rich folks. It then started to become more of a "keeping up with the Joneses".  It's like in Japan with their fruit!
• Author David Foster Wallace went on assignment to the Maine Lobster Festival and wrote an interesting article called Consider the Lobster.
• Do lobsters feel pain? There is thrashing around and a "scream", which isn't a scream.
• You can kill your lobster with the Crustastun, which basically stuns your shellfish.
• Check out Mudbug Madness in Shrieveport, Louisiana. Piles of "mudbugs" or crawfish cover the tables.
• You gotta check out the Bob's Burger episode with a butter statue of Julia Childs.

Live crabs

• The largest lobster ever caught was 44.4 lbs in Nova Scotia! Crazy!
• Our food fight question this week comes from someone who has a major garlic problem in the gym...ew! Are you using garlic in the correct way? Smash and smear! The salt and pepper need to get a divorce, according to Christopher Kimball.
• We have a listener survey. If you fill it out, you can enter to win a $20 Amazon Gift Card! Wahoo!
• Also, if you want to see some of our favorite kitchen tools (or podcasting equipment, if you're looking to start a podcast), you can check out our Amazon Affiliate store (it's no cost to you to use these links). It will help support the podcast!

Run Time: 52 minutes

Sponsors: Our podcast is sponsored by our good friends at Zip Schedules. It's an online employee scheduling software and app, that make scheduling a cinch and communicating with your staff a piece of cake--it takes minutes to do and it's perfect for those in the restaurant and hospitality industry.

Go to zipschedules.com and get 30 days free when you sign up. PLUS, our Hungry Squared audience can enter the code HUNGRY to receive 20% off your monthly subscription for a whole year. Sweet!

Thanks, Zip Schedules!

Leave a Comment consider the lobster, crustaceans, lobster, shellfish