Live Maine lobster sale at Costco online

[ponyo]

Costco currently has live Maine lobster 1.25 lbs each, 6 count on sale for $99.99. Normal price is $129.99 so $30 off. That comes to $13.33 per pound which isn't too bad considering overnight air shipping is included in the price.
https://www.costco.com/Live-Maine-Lobster-1.25-lbs-each,-6-count.product.100414072.html

I was craving some lobsters and was curious about the quality so I placed an order yesterday to be delivered today. The lobsters were shipped via UPS overnight air saver and was delivered to my door at 10 am this morning. The box was packaged well. I took a quick peek inside the box to see if the lobsters were still alive and then placed the box inside the fridge to keep until dinner time.

I didn't weigh any of the lobsters but all seemed to be good size for 1.25 lb chicken lobsters. Even after being in the fridge all day, the lobsters were active and pretty feisty.

I steamed the lobsters and paired it with pan fried ribeye. The lobsters were really good even though it was soft shell. It was definitely the freshest lobster I tried. The tamalley was rich, sweet, and buttery. Tamalley didn't have any of the bitterness or off-taste sometimes found on lobsters bought from supermarkets here. I ate two lobsters along with the steak and couldn't eat another bite. I will be ordering these lobsters from Costco again.

 

[lxskllr]

I've never had lobster, but they sure look good.

 

[Kaido]

How did you steam them? I've been curious to try them in the Instant Pot. My buddy did his sous-vide & said it was the best lobster he'd ever had.

I'm not an overly huge fan of lobster, not because I hate it, but just because I mostly think it tastes like, well, the butter you put it on it, lol. I've been interested to try Gordon Ramsey's "extract everything!" technique tho:

 

[Kaido]

I've never had lobster, but they sure look good.

Like, ever?

 

[lxskllr]

Never. Well, maybe .25 times. I had imitation lobster once :^D That was alright. The times I've had the opportunity to try it, there was other stuff I wanted more.

 

[ponyo]

I've never had lobster, but they sure look good.

You should try it if you get the chance. Maine lobsters are good. I still prefer crab but sometimes I crave lobster.

How did you steam them? I've been curious to try them in the Instant Pot. My buddy did his sous-vide & said it was the best lobster he'd ever had.

I'm not an overly huge fan of lobster, not because I hate it, but just because I mostly think it tastes like, well, the butter you put it on it, lol. I've been interested to try Gordon Ramsey's "extract everything!" technique tho:

I steamed it in a small pot. I used steamer basket. It only took like 15 minutes per lobster. I ate the lobsters plain. I don't use butter at all as the butter flavor will overpower the delicate lobster taste. The only time I use butter is if I'm grilling previously frozen lobster tails. I baste the tails with butter during grilling to prevent it from drying out.

 

[Kaido]

I steamed it in a small pot. I used steamer basket. It only took like 15 minutes per lobster. I ate the lobsters plain. I don't use butter at all as the butter flavor will overpower the delicate lobster taste. The only time I use butter is if I'm grilling previously frozen lobster tails. I baste the tails with butter during grilling to prevent it from drying out.

Interesting...I've never had them without butter. To me, it was always just kind of a flavor-neutral meat. I'm only a few hours from Maine...maybe I'll have to try them straight-up sometime. So just steam & eat? Salt? Pepper?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Hmm. Seems cruel. (But I do get my local grocery store's Lobster Rolls, when they have them. AFAIK, they are real lobster.)

 

[Kaido]

Hmm. Seems cruel. (But I do get my local grocery store's Lobster Rolls, when they have them. AFAIK, they are real lobster.)

It does, as you're taking a living animal & killing it yourself, which is not an experience most people have had because of how far removed we are from farm work here in the electronic age. But if you zoom out a bit, every piece of meat that you eat has had to be killed somewhere along the way, either at the farm or the butcher or wherever.

 

[ponyo]

Interesting...I've never had them without butter. To me, it was always just kind of a flavor-neutral meat. I'm only a few hours from Maine...maybe I'll have to try them straight-up sometime. So just steam & eat? Salt? Pepper?

Just steam and eat. No salt. No pepper. Nothing. Just the lobster and nothing else added. When you steam the lobster, you want to cook it upside down on its back to prevent its juice from escaping. Same thing when steaming crab.

Hmm. Seems cruel. (But I do get my local grocery store's Lobster Rolls, when they have them. AFAIK, they are real lobster.)

It is. And I'm a real bastard and didn't kill the lobster first by stabbing it in the head/brain before steaming it. If you look at the picture of the cooked lobster, you can see there's no knife kill mark on the head where the eyes are.

 

[kage69]

I'm not a fan, but I encourage all who dig on sea bugs to give Maine a hand and order some. Seen them prepared plenty of times by people who know what they are doing. Live lobster + boiling water, then ice shock, snip belly and claws tips with poultry shears, let drain a bit. Serve with melted butter, lemon, or nothing at all.

You can send people live lobster pretty much anywhere. The pound will pack them up with wet seaweed and ice packs, they'll be good to go for several days.

 

[Muadib]

Damn! I want some now.

 

[Kaido]

It is. And I'm a real bastard and didn't kill the lobster first by stabbing it in the head/brain before steaming it. If you look at the picture of the cooked lobster, you can see there's no knife kill mark on the head where the eyes are.

This probably belongs in the "unpopular opinion" thread, but I think all kids in say middle school should have to go work on a farm, pick their own produce & clean it, gather eggs, milk cows, and kill their own animals - chickens, cows, etc. It's pretty easy for a kid to throw away nuggets they don't want, but it has a little more impact when they've killed a chicken & realize that an animal gave its life for you to eat them.

I'm not a treehugger, but I do believe in taking good care of animals until it's time for them to be used for food, and as part of the process, I think kids (not real little kids) should be exposed to how food & farms actually work. It sounds a bit horrible from the outside, but most people are going to be eating meat every day for the rest of their lives, and I think it's a valuable experience to learn where your food comes from & how it's actually made!

 

[Kaido]

Just steam and eat. No salt. No pepper. Nothing. Just the lobster and nothing else added. When you steam the lobster, you want to cook it upside down on its back to prevent its juice from escaping. Same thing when steaming crab.

You know, I've been meaning to try it in the Instant Pot, so I grabbed one today on the way home. 4 minutes in the Instant Pot, voila! Quick protein snack! Here it is in the pot with a couple cups of water & a couple tablespoons of salt: (forgot to flip it upside down!)

Bright red after 4 minutes on Manual with QR:

Ready to party:

With some salted garlic butter:

At 4 minutes with QR, it was definitely more chewy than other ways I've had it (if you've done chicken SV at like 140F, kind of similar to that texture) - but still good! I'd like to experiment with more ways of cooking it, but lobster is still kinda "meh" to me, and at $8.99 a pound even on sale, it's hard to cost-justify a bigger quantity, especially given the somewhat small amount of meat you get, even after you gut the tail, claws, legs, and head.

I was pretty impressed with how easily the shell came apart...I did everything with my hands, no nutcracker required! Kind of similar to how well hardboiled eggs done in the IP separate from their shells & the inner membrane. You can see from the last picture above how well it slid out of the shell...twist off the tail, pinch to crack it vertically with your fingers, then peel the shell upwards to pry off the meat. Easiest I've ever popped one out!

There was quite a bit of liquid drainage from different parts of the shell, and aside from being a bit overly-chewy, I'd say my only real complaint was that the tomalley pretty much liquified & fell out like Slimer from Ghostbusters, so I didn't get much of that (you can see in the last picture above on the left side how much of it got dispersed into the water while pressure-cooking).

It was really easy compared to having to pre-pull the meat from the uncooked lobster and then vac-sealing & sous-viding it. Literally toss it in, cook it quick, done! I'd be curious to try it again with say a standard cup of water & no salt, and I'm also curious if the chewiness of the meat means it needs less time or more time (sometimes the cooking time has different effects, depending on what you're cooking!).

 

[ponyo]

Maybe 4 minutes is too long using Instant Pot. Small chicken lobster only need between 10-15 minutes when steaming in a pot on the stove. If you overcook lobster, it will get tough so it's better to under cook than over.

The reason the shell came apart easily and you could crush the shell with your bare hands is because the lobster was soft shelled. It's summer time right now and this is when the lobsters shed their old shell and grow new one. So the shells are really weak and soft right now. And since the lobster is expending so much energy shedding the old shell and growing new one, there's not much meat in the lobster. The claws should have lot of empty space and air right now. In the winter time when the water is colder, the lobster is hard shell. The shell will be harder and it will weigh more with the shell filled with meat. Summer time soft shell lobsters are less desirable than winter time hard shell lobster. It's probably why Costco is having the discount promotion on live lobsters.

 

[Kaido]

Maybe 4 minutes is too long using Instant Pot. Small chicken lobster only need between 10-15 minutes when steaming in a pot on the stove. If you overcook lobster, it will get tough so it's better to under cook than over.

The reason the shell came apart easily and you could crush the shell with your bare hands is because the lobster was soft shelled. It's summer time right now and this is when the lobsters shed their old shell and grow new one. So the shells are really weak and soft right now. And since the lobster is expending so much energy shedding the old shell and growing new one, there's not much meat in the lobster. The claws should have lot of empty space and air right now. In the winter time when the water is colder, the lobster is hard shell. The shell will be harder and it will weigh more with the shell filled with meat. Summer time soft shell lobsters are less desirable than winter time hard shell lobster. It's probably why Costco is having the discount promotion on live lobsters.

I had no idea they shed their shell, that's crazy! Or that there was a softness/hardness difference between seasons, thanks for the education! I'm trying to branch out more into seafood...I do shrimp from time to time, and salmon pretty often, and other random fish here & there. Tried getting into mussels & oysters, but it wasn't my thing. Sushi, of course, is great. Haven't done much with crab &

A local store had it down to $6.99/lb (that's getting into Big Mac territory, lol), so I gave it another shot (and didn't forget the lemon this time, which made a HUGE difference!). 2 minutes in the IP & it came out pretty good! Lobster for breakfast because apparently I am an #ATOTballer lol:

 

[zinfamous]

Interesting...I've never had them without butter. To me, it was always just kind of a flavor-neutral meat. I'm only a few hours from Maine...maybe I'll have to try them straight-up sometime. So just steam & eat? Salt? Pepper?

Lobster always seemed like an irrationally expensive vehicle for butter delivery to me.

 

[sdifox]

I like cold lobster meat with mayo or this prep

https://thewoksoflife.com/ginger-scallion-lobster-cantonese/

 

[Kaido]

Lobster always seemed like an irrationally expensive vehicle for butter delivery to me.

Agreed...I'm a non-taster, so lobster doesn't really have much flavor to me. Lemon, butter, garlic, and salt are required to make it good, or mayo & some other seasonings for a hotdog-bun sandwich (hot or cold).

 

[lxskllr]

Old Bay makes everything good. If I were to steam a lobster on my own, I'd do it like MD blue crab. Onion, beer, water, and a bunch of Old Bay.

 

[ponyo]

I had no idea they shed their shell, that's crazy! Or that there was a softness/hardness difference between seasons, thanks for the education! I'm trying to branch out more into seafood...I do shrimp from time to time, and salmon pretty often, and other random fish here & there. Tried getting into mussels & oysters, but it wasn't my thing. Sushi, of course, is great. Haven't done much with crab &

A local store had it down to $6.99/lb (that's getting into Big Mac territory, lol), so I gave it another shot (and didn't forget the lemon this time, which made a HUGE difference!). 2 minutes in the IP & it came out pretty good! Lobster for breakfast because apparently I am an #ATOTballer lol:

Lobster for breakfast! That actually sounds pretty darn good. So you liked 2 minutes in IP better than 4? I like pretty much all seafood. I went to Costco today to see if they had some cold water lobster tails. I saw 5 pound box last week when I was there but all they had today was warm lobster tails. I don't care for warm water lobsters.

If I can find some larger Maine lobsters, I would like to try making stuffed lobster. 3-5 lb lobster would be nice. The 1.25 lb chicken lobsters are too small to stuff.

 

[Kaido]

Lobster for breakfast! That actually sounds pretty darn good. So you liked 2 minutes in IP better than 4? I like pretty much all seafood. I went to Costco today to see if they had some cold water lobster tails. I saw 5 pound box last week when I was there but all they had today was warm lobster tails. I don't care for warm water lobsters.

If I can find some larger Maine lobsters, I would like to try making stuffed lobster. 3-5 lb lobster would be nice. The 1.25 lb chicken lobsters are too small to stuff.

Yeah, I picked up an extra 2-pounder, so I'll try 1 minute in the IP tomorrow, just for fun (with some Old Bay seasoning! haha).

I like most seafood, I just don't cook it much, outside of salmon, and sometimes shrimp. I mostly live off chicken, haha.

 

[ultimatebob]

I think that I'm spoiled with good cheap Lobster being from Connecticut. We can get lobsters that size on sale for $5.99 a pound here. Just grab the live from the tank (there are rubber bands on the claws), put them in your cooler, and head on home to steam 'em.

 

[ultimatebob]

Just steam and eat. No salt. No pepper. Nothing. Just the lobster and nothing else added. When you steam the lobster, you want to cook it upside down on its back to prevent its juice from escaping. Same thing when steaming crab.

You should really serve them with some melted butter, but yeah... you really don't have to go crazy with seasoning.

 

[zinfamous]

Old Bay makes everything good. If I were to steam a lobster on my own, I'd do it like MD blue crab. Onion, beer, water, and a bunch of Old Bay.

Old Bay is the quark, or really Higgs Boson of food seasonings: Old Bay was originally made from the mashed crab shells and seasonings of an original mass crab boil, and all subsequent batches are made from such crab boils, which are seasoned with Old Bay. ergo, every container of Old Bay has "particles" of the original Old Bay.