If you buy a live rock lobster, place it in the freezer or ice slurry for 30 minutes to anaesthetise it (it will go to sleep/be rendered senseless). Bring a large pot of salted water (about 17g per litre) to the boil and then add the anaesthetised lobster.
For best quality, lobster should be frozen uncooked. Freeze the lobster whole, or clean it and freeze just shell portions that contain the edible meat. (Some lobsters have large front claws that contain edible meat, while others have edible meat mainly in the tail section.)
After letting them freeze, the lobsters were then thawed in 28-degree sea water. The result was that only two came back to life out of thirty lobsters. Isn't that surprising?
Freezing Live Lobsters: Just Don't Do It
Safety aside, freezing and thawing lobster prior to cooking it will lead to enzymes leaching into the meat, resulting in a mushy, unappetizing texture.
Properly freezing and storing lobster extends the shelf life to up to 12 months. It's important to never freeze a live lobster without taking proper steps.
Lobster meat that has been picked and frozen will have an acceptable shelf life of 3-6 months if stored at temperatures of 0° F (-18° C) or lower.
What to do if your lobster dies. Should they die and you've kept them cold, you can still cook them. According to State of Maine food safety experts, dead lobster can be consumed safely up to 24 hours from time of death, if refrigerated properly at or below 38°F (the temperature of the average home refrigerator).
How long can a lobster live out of water? A lobster can live out of the water for a couple of days if kept in a moist and cool place.
Techniques for freezing lobster meat varied: soak it in milk to reduce freezer burn, wrap it tightly so there was no air left in the packaging and so forth.
Lobsters are not poisonous if they die before cooking, but you should cook them quickly. Many lobsters sold commercially are killed and frozen before cooking. Lobsters and other crustaceans do spoil rapidly after death, which is why many buyers insist on receiving them alive.
Research has clearly shown that lobsters, crabs, and other crustaceans can and do experience pain. Scientists have shown that their reaction to painful stimuli is more than just a reflex response and instead, they learn from painful stimuli and change their behavior.
Lobsters will die if they dry out, and can only last so long when refrigerated. Lobsters stored this way will stay sluggish and moist, but must be cooked within 24-48 hours — after this, your investment in fresh seafood probably won't be so fresh.
Therefore before cooking, keep lobsters in the coldest part of your refrigerator. And to sedate or even dispatch a lobster, chill it in the freezer for 10-15 minutes.
Freeze the lobster for 30 to 60 minutes, then put it in the pot of boiling water head-first. While the boiling water, rather than the freezer, will kill it almost instantly, the cold will immobilize the lobster so it won't thrash about.
Moisture: Lobsters need to be kept moist, but not wet, to stay fresh. Cover them with seaweed or damp newspaper. Do not store them with ice or in tap water as fresh water will kill them.
Scientists have found that it can take lobsters between 35 – 45 seconds to die when plunged into a pot of boiling water — and if they are dismembered their nervous system can still function for up to an hour.
They found that, on average, male European lobsters live to 31 years old, and females to 54. There were a few exceptions: one female had reached 72 years old. Lobsters certainly do not live forever. It's not entirely clear where this myth originated, but it is a claim that persists online, often in the form of memes.
The best way to keep your lobsters alive for up to 24 hours is to store them covered with a damp cloth or newspaper in the coldest part of the refrigerator. Once the lobster is stunned and showing signs of insensibility, they should be mechanically killed immediately.
Lobsters and other shellfish have harmful bacteria naturally present in their flesh. Once the lobster is dead, these bacteria can rapidly multiply and release toxins that may not be destroyed by cooking. You therefore minimise the chance of food poisoning by cooking the lobster alive.
Why Do People Cook Lobsters Alive? Boiling lobsters alive is a way to reduce the risk of food poisoning from bacteria that live in their flesh and that quickly multiply on their carcasses, according to Science Focus. Plus they have been deemed tastier and better presented on the plate when cooked this way.
Though some seafood may be cooked frozen, it's best to thaw lobster tails first. Cooking lobster while frozen can leave the meat tough and chewy. Also, the meat tends to stick to the shell if it's cooked while frozen. Let lobster tails thaw in the refrigerator for a day before cooking.
You can choose to freeze cooked lobster in one batch if desired, but keep in mind that the meat can lose some of its quality and moisture if it's thawed and refrozen. You may also like to remove the meat from the shell and chop up the cooked lobster before freezing.
According to the USDA's Food Safety website: “Once frozen food is thawed in the refrigerator, it is safe to refreeze it without cooking, although there may be a loss of quality due to the moisture lost through defrosting.”