Glen Davidson writes about cooking the local lobster...
>I am currently investigating the relative merits of steam cooking
>vs. boiling of lobsters (Panulirus cygnus). There are many claims
>made by steam cooker manufacturers concerning increased recoveries
>of steamed vs. boiled lobsters. However, I have yet to see any hard
>data (cook profiles, etc) to substantiate these claims....
>I have recently completed my own trials comparing steaming and
>boiling, in which the end points of cooking were determined by
>monitoring product core temperatures during each cook and from these
>process lethality values for polyphenoloxidase enzymes were
>calculated for each treatment. Steamed and boiled lobsters were
>cooked to equivalent lethality values. I have a result, but was
>wondering if anyone who has conducted similar trials might be
>willing to share their findings in order to verify my own.
Hi Glen,
I've often wondered about this question, but as usual, done
precious little experimentation. However I'd like to venture a guess
about your results. I'd guess that your boiled lobsters were more
tender and juicier than your steamed ones. Here's the basis of my
guess:
1) With animal muscle, the time and temperature of heating can
greatly affect the tenderness and juiciness (I think that more
sophisticated people would call it 'water holding capacity.'). More
time-temp means tougher and drier.
2) With steaming, the temperature at the surface would be very close
to 100 deg C, give or take a little depending on atmospheric
pressure. This is hot.
3) With boiling, the temperature would be about 100 deg C at the
bottom of the pot, where the bubbles form. Again, give or take a
little for the depth of the water and the barometric pressure. But
where the lobsters are, the temperature could well be less than 100
deg. This would give a lower temperature cook and a more tender
product. Especially if you kept the lobsters in water/steam until
you saw your target internal temperature.
4) Those people who find steamed seafood to be more tender than
boiled probably remove the product from the steam before the internal
temperature peaks, but then know from experience that the deep core
temperature will reach their target before it starts to drop. Those
who don't have the right experience may serve undercooked seafood.
5) To guess a little more, maybe the best way to get tender but
adequately cooked lobster is to have the cooking water
thermostatically controlled at a little below boiling temperature and
then to cook until the internal temperature gets high enough. I'd
also guess that this may be a good way to cook what we Californians
call 'rock cod' or 'red snapper.' Their flesh toughens seriously in
cooking.
I'd be interested to hear what you and others with real
experience have found.
Best regards,
George Chang (Berkeley, California)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 01 2004 - 15:24:52 PDT