Its taste makes all the effort it takes to catch, cook, and eat a lobster seem well worthwhile. Two hundred years ago, the lobster did not enjoy its present luxury status. Early Maine settlers used lobsters as fertilizer, and legend has it that prison inmates complained about having to dine on lobster three times a week. Perhaps familiarity bred distaste, as lobsters were once so plentiful that they could be gathered at low tide along Maine's rocky shore. Today, lobster fishing requires considerably more work.
Lobsters live on the ocean floor, where they feed on snails, clams, mussels, and other marine life.
During the seven years it takes a lobster to reach its legal catch size, it regularly molts its shell. During cooking, however, they turn bright red. To eat a cooked lobster, you need a nutcracker, a lobster bib, and lots of melted butter. Twist off the front claws, crack them open, and remove the meat. Break off the tail from the body and use a fork to push the meat out.