Can anyone point me to the link regarding lobsters ‘screaming’ when being placed in boiling water. Also, what’s up with the archive search feature? I never seem to be able to find what I’m looking for with it…is it just me, or is it not much of a search engine?
Actually I don’t think they do. I mean, wouldn’t that kinda require lungs and the ability to breath air, in which to pass over the vocal box?
No, they don’t scream…but I wanted to show Cecil’s column on the matter to my girlfriend. I’m pretty sure I read a column a while back from Cecil, but I guess I could be wrong.
I can’t find the column either, but I have heard that the “scream” (if it exists) is steam escaping from the lobster’s carapace.
In my experience the archive search finds old columns accurately. I do not recall any column about lobsters screaming. Couldn’t find it in any of the Straight Dope books either.
In keeping with a marine biology theme, I will provide instead this link:
Should you cut up six-pack rings so they don’t choke sea birds? (16-Jul-1999)
huh? There’s noise certainly of the lobster heating suddenly, but I’ve seen maybe half a dozen lobsters dunked live into the pot and have yet to hear said squeak. I wasn’t paying close attention, and the water WAS bubbling loudly, so maybe I missed it.
There’s no column, just an SDMB thread from September, '02.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=132651
Can anyone comment on the humane-ness of this?
I mean, I’m all in favor of killing the lobster, but should you kill him in some other fashion first and then boil him? Anyone got info on how lobsters experience pain?
I’ve never actually been present at the boiling part of the process, just the eating. Are they killed instantly or do they thrash around a lot?
I don’t like the tasdtte of lobster anyway.
Hmm - perhaps it would be more polite to cut the lobster’s head off and then boil it. Wouldn’t it leak though?
I work at a seafood department where we sell, and sometimes even cook lobsters. I assure you they dont scream
The problem is that lobsters are heavily-armored arthropods. Boiling is about the most humane way of killing them that doesn’t involve anvils.
Good point, never actually tried to kill one myself. Very convenient that the only way to kill them also prepares them for me to eat!
The tasdtte should be removed before cooking 
If You want to kill a lobster without boiling, Joy of Cooking (1975 ed. and 1997 ed.) recommends that You “pierce it behind the head with a sharp, heavy knife. Find the cross-hatch right behind the lobster’s head. Plunge the point . . . straight down . . … To avoid muscular contractions, you can put the lobster in the freezer for a few minutes until stiff.” (1997) This is necessary if You want to saute or broil the meat or try any of the more elaborate preparations. It seems to kill them quicker than the hot water does, but I’ve never asked.
Also, putting them in a tub of tepid fresh water seems to stun them. I expect it nearly kills them. At any rate, they don’t struggle so much over the pot of boiling water when the time comes.
I was thinking that a well-placed quick knife jab might do it. I kill stuff regularly, but still, dropping something into boiling water just seems a tad medieval, even for me.
I have bought and cooked several Lobsetes over the years, and have prepared them many ways. They don’t scream when droped into bioling water. However once while dunking one I thought I heard something I took as air squiking out of the shell, like a hi piched scream. It was faint and brief.
As for dispaching them, a knife through the head is the quickest meathod. I was tought to do this before Spliting them for broiling. Unfortunately this is not done for boiling. I think because people would not eat a boiled Lobester with it’s head split open. But trust me a big knife is quicker, Lobesters move for a little while after being dunked.