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Lobster: A Global History / Elisabeth Townsend

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Lobster is rather creepy when you think of it. Looks like a giant insect... a scorpion in fact. It just tastes so darn good that people are willing to put up with its off-putting looks, its dangerous claws (Atlantic lobsters, that is), and the struggle it takes first to cook it (if you are so daring) and then prise the meat from its shell.

This book chronicles the history of lobster and how it earned a revered place on our table. Lobster are pictured in ancient Roman mosaics and seemed enjoy a place in their feasts, but like many things that the Romans promoted and perfected, lobster fell into obscurity until the 1800s. In Colonial times it was considered a poor man’s replacement for meat and saw the early coastal setters through lean times. “Coastal” is a key word here, since lobster’s popularity only really took off in modern times when refrigeration and transportation made it possible to get it to restaurant tables more than a stone’s throw from the ocean. Lobsters can live from 50-100 years and as recently as 1977 a specimen was caught in Nova Scotia nearly four-feet long and weighing over 44 pounds (though such behemoths were more common before the mid-1800s). There is also an extensive section in this book on humane ways of dispatching lobsters (popping them in the freezer to anesthetize them first seems to be an important part of it). Does anyone give a second thought to putting a poor mussel in a skillet?

Lobster: A Global History was recently reviewed in the New York Times and served admirably as background reading for a short trip we’re taking to Acadia National Park in Maine. We’re hoping that lobster will form a significant memory of the trip.

This book is part of The Edible Series, a series which includes volumes on such diverse culinary subject as cheese, curry, pizza, whiskey, etc.

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