But it will also be noticeably harder to open.
If you’re in California, consider a couple small Pacific lobsters from Mexico as an alternative to an expensive Maine two-pounder. They’re easier to fit in a pot and all the meat is in the tails so you don’t need to mess with the claws.
If you don’t already have nutcrackers to use, consider buying some bone shears instead. A much nicer way to get through the shells, and a much more civil eating experience. Just cut a triangular hole into each opening to allow the meat to be lifted out. On the tail, cut out the white ribs and swimmers on the bottom to leave the top looking nice on the plate.
Any heavy shears will easily cut through the bottom of a tail. To get through the top and claws of hard shells you’ll need crackers, a heavy knife, or a cleaver. But it’s easy to pull the meat out of the tail, just seperate the whole tail, pull off the tail fins, then push the meat out through the front. Lazy-Man’s-Lobster has gotten popular around here lately, where the bug is served with the shells opened, or the meat entirely removed. That takes away a lot of the fun of eating lobster. It’s really finger food.
I’ll just add my $0.02CAN to this thread.
I cook live lobster a couple times a year. There is a grocery chain here with a live tank. They have lobsters from 1lb to 8lb. My “sweet spot” is the 2.5-3lb lobster. The price varies somewhat but is ~$10.00CAN/lb.
I steam my lobster. I rent a 30 quart pot and put about 3 inches of water in it. I add quite a bit of salt (1/4 cup maybe?) and bring to a full rolling boil.
I then add 2-4 (depending if we have guests) live lobsters in the 2.5-3lb range. Once the water re-boils I “steam” them for ~22-25 minutes.
I’ve never over-cooked a lobster doing it this way, and they’ve always turned out great!
1 tip for boiling or steaming your lobsters, don’t tear your lobster apart over your eating plate, there is quite a bit of liquid trapped in their shells. I get a big tin bowl and over the sink I tear the claws and tails off and place them in the tin bowl. If there is any green crap on the end of the tail (apparently in Montreal they call that the “salad”) I rinse it off under water. Depending on the size of the lobster their other “legs” can be large enough to get some decent meat off.
Then everyone just grabs a 1 section of lobster at a time till it’s gone.
Make sure you don’t just throw out the carcasses either. We had friends from Iceland over for lobster, and they took all of the carcasses away and made soup with them. Oh. My. God. It was to die for, I never did get the recipe from them.
Hope this helps…
MtM