VII 



Preservation of Lobster Meat 



Freezing. The freezing of live lobsters and shipping 

 them frozen and whole has been tried in several Maine 

 ports. It has not been successful. 



It is claimed that the taste of frozen lobsters is not the 

 same as live lobsters; that even boiled lobsters which have 

 then been frozen for shipment are not as good as freshly 

 boiled lobsters. 



In at least one case, the lobsters were not deeply frozen 

 quickly enough. Quick freezing is the backbone of the 

 Birdseye process, and results in the cells of vegetables not 

 being burst by the freezing but retaining their structure and 

 flavor. Another difficulty in any frozen lobster is that it be- 

 comes very brittle so that it is almost impossible to maintain 

 the claws attached to the body. One lobster firm broke the 

 arms away and shipped the body in a tray with the claws 

 lying alongside. It did not look like a lobster and had less 

 appeal. 



The Maine Agricultural Experiment Station found: 



1. That meat sticks to the shell, and is difficult to 

 remove in lobsters which have been frozen without any 

 precooking 



2. That lobsters which have been " heat treated " 

 before freezing by steam cooking for seventy seconds at 

 195° F. can be readily shucked out of the shell, yet the 

 color of the shell remains green or black. The cooking 

 affects only the surface of the meat; the interior is still 

 raw 



3. That when lobsters are cooked at 212° F. for one 

 minute or more before freezing, their color changes to 

 orange or the familiar red of a cooked lobster. They 

 have lost the green or black color of live lobsters. 



The 195° F. cooking for seventy seconds was found to 

 be the best treatment. The meat was easily removed from 



