Connecticut western news., 1886-08-04
LOBSTERLORE.
An Entertaining Chapter
 Upon this Crustacean.
Where Lobsters Come From and How they are Prepared for Consumption

The Chlcago 1rl0U1e says, The season
 for Holsters, unlike that of oysters, lasts practically all the year around, but for the first three months of it-or little thcreafter-the quality is somewhat off color. The most fertile fields of supply are the Massachusetts, Maine, New found and Labrador coasts, with the odds largely in favor of the first two. though the largest specimens are nearly always from Labrador. This city at pres ent consumes from 1900 to 170O Holsters week, which is neither above nor be- low the records of former times, the demand having apparently stood about still for some years. The supplies reach the city daily by express in two conditions-alivc and "boiled." A lob ster, when properly handled, will live for week out of the water, with no stronger nutriment than that which it derives from convulsive clawings at the air and the limbs of its travelling com panions. The live ones are packed in barrels-125 to the barrel-care being taken to insure each one the most con- fortable position possible across the body of its next-door neighbor, and ventila- tion being secured by means of large holes bored in the head and sides of the barrel. The "boiled" Holsters are close | ly packed between layers of seaweed and ice, and reach their destination ready for the table, with the exception, of course, of the necessary cleaning.
 The 'boiled" lobster being the kind most generally called for, is the most i'm portant feature of the trade. All the boiling for the Chicago market is done in Boston, and persons of delicate emo- tional construction may possibly be shocked to learn that to be fit for human food lobster must be boiled alive. It is phenomenon no less remarkable than indisputable that one that dies natural death. i. e. of suffocation due to removal from its natural element sea-water, is not fit article for diet, and experts say that nine out of ten cases of indigestion re- sulting from lobster supper arc due to the fish having been allowed to die of its own accord instead of at the merciless hands of its captors. As soon as possible after being caught the Holsters are thrown by the Boston merchants into huge tank of boiling water, seasoned with a l oF %o ob hor of kho fluid
 Sea-water, contrary to the opinion o1 many, is not used, being unfit for cook ing purposes of any description. The boiling process lasts about twenty min. utes, and the Holsters, after being given
 prober time to cool, are ready for ship ment. The sooner lobster is boiled
 after being taken from the ocean the lon
 ger it will keep after boiling.
 The same rule that applies to boiled
 Holsters with regard to the necessity o
 sudden death applies to broiled Holsters,
 which come next Tn popularity as ar
 article of diet. The proprietor of one O.
 the large Chicago fish restaurants day
 or SO ago initiated the writer into tho
 mysteries of the process employed by
 himself and his competitors. At thu
 word of command a stalwart cook, ir
 white apron and paper cap, seized agrea'
 wriggling fellow from a refrigerator nea
 by, and slammed it violently down upo1 the spotless marble execution block.
 Seizing a large, keen-bladed knife, h. held his prey securely down with his Jeff hand, and with two strokes of thu weapon wie!ded in his right laid th quivering creature squarely in two iron head to tail. The two halves that
 moment later lay side by side on the sla1 were certainly dead enough, not so mucl as a shudder animatlng the layers o jelly-like flesh, and one could scarcel, conceive more expeditions mode o death. A call from customer sent on : of the halves onto the griddle at tha moment, so that the possibility of secur ing real Give broiled lobster' in Chicag
 may be regarded as established.