…when thrust into the boiling water to be cooked? Does shock kill it immediately, or does it have time to feel the pain? I really don’t know the answer, but I had a kid ask me(nephew, age ten) and I couldn’t answer.
You don’t put the lobster in the water and then heat it?
In short, lobsters don’t really have the capacity to process the feeling of “pain.” They can respond to physical stimuli, but that’s about it.
From this site: http://www.chilipaper.com/FWharf/Lobster/Lobster_FAQ/
Thank you Maceman, for that info.
No, that would a) take too long b) risk overcooking the succulent beasties.
<Homer>Mmmm, lobsters! 
</Homer>
If we have squeamish witnesses to our lobster boil, I have “put the lobsters to sleep” before boiling them. If you stand a lobster on its head for a minute (or less), they appear to pass out and stop thrashing around. I say “appear to” because, as noted above, the lobster nervous system is considerably different from our own, and lack of motor activity may not necessarily indicate lack of nerve activity.
The Food Network show “Good Eats” is, as usual, the source for all things culinary. From here:
After removing them from the freezer, Alton puts them straight into the pot (steaming, not boiling) and says, “Count to 10. [waits for 10 count] Your bugs are already dead.”
While I’m a huge “Good Eats” fan, I’ve never bought the “put them in the freezer to numb them” theory. Lobsters thrive in very cold water - I’ve pulled live thrashing lobsters out of 37 degree water in New England. I strongly doubt that 15 minutes in the 20 degree air of a freezer will get them any colder than what they’re used to anyway. I think it’s just a sop to the conscience of those who want to eat lobster, but feel a need to kill them “humanely”.
Not to mention the horrible scrabbling sounds of a terrified lobster trying to escape as his metal cell grows hotter and hotter. With the amount of water you need to heat up to boil a live lobster, this could take a very long time. Nightmare fuel.
That’s the part that stops me—have you ever looked at the things? They’re giant cockroaches! How can anyone eat them?
[shudder]
Yes. . . but they’re giant, *succulent * cockroaches.
Re: putting them in cold water and heating it:
I have also heard (no cite, but I’ll try to find one) that if a lobster “knows” it’s going to die, then certain chemicals will get released from organs into the meat, rendering it, at the very least, bad tasting, and at the worst, poisonous. Granted, this sounds a little iffy, so anyone with more knowledge of a lobster is welcome to tell me I’m an idiot.
Alsom lobsters are disgusting, like all seafood. Eve is right…just a giant, underwate cockroach.
What, you prefer to dine on the adorable and cuddly? 
this was the bst I could find. It does mention a lobster has toxins in it’s tamale (liver) but nothing about them being released into the rest of the body if cooked slowly. Granted, since most people I know eat the tamale anyway, and the site suggests that up to two lobster tamales a day is still OK, it’s a non-issue, really.
Of course—the cuter the animal, the better they taste!
I know I do! Have you ever seen a deer? Aww…so cute…BLAM! Venison stew tonight!
Ooh, Bambi…mmmmmm!
A friend of mine swears that drunk lobster is the way to go. He says he learned this from a New England coast family. I don’t remember the exact proportions, but it involved several gallons of wine, plus ice and water in a bathtub. Let the nasty little bugs swim around in it for a while (a half-hour?) and then pop them into boiling water. He swears that it was the best lobster he’d ever had…they’re all happy and relaxed, then boom! They’re too toasted to get the anxiety toxins going before they croak.
I wouldn’t know, I don’t eat 'em.
Must have been one of the richer New England families, to have wasted several gallons of wine in such a way…
Here in Nova Scotia, we prefer a bucket of sea water. Boil 'em up, crack the claws with a hammer, and serve with vast quantities of melted butter. Cholesterol be damned!
BTW, today is the first day of the season in Districts 33 and 34 (southwest Nova Scotia). The season would normally have begun yesterday, but high winds forced a postponement.
Wish I’d known that years ago when I regularly ate crawdads (crayfish). A neighbor my age said I was cruel to animals because I was torturing them. (This from the same kid that would trap me in underground forts of his and then throw dirt clods at me. :rolleyes: )
SavageNarce: Not necessarily. If I was going to make drunk lobster, I’d use box wine. Probably a white of some kind.
Idaho must still offer cheaper boxed plonk than we can get here. Since our wine sales are all made through government-controlled outlets (and since they “sin tax” the hell out of alcohol) it would still cost me considerably more for the wine to cook the lobsters than for the lobsters themselves.
My preferred methodology would be to eat the lobster, drink the wine, and let them get together “after the fact”.