Best Way to Shuck a Lobster?

The Big Mother Shucker, of course.. 

and 87,000 Pounds of Water Pressure

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/11/st_crush_lobsters/

Sure, eating lobster is messy. But shucking one raw is even worse. 

Crack the shell and viscous hemolymph pours out, while green globs of liver and hepatopancreas dribble down your arms. 

They don’t make a bib big enough to save you from that kind of slop.

Luckily, they make big enough machines. 

At a former golf-shoe factory 13 miles from the Atlantic, workers at Shucks Maine Lobster drop up to 150 pounds of live lobsters into a perforated metal basket and sink them in the Avure 215L, a water-filled compression chamber affectionately known as the Big Mother Shucker. A pump pressurizes the water to 40,000 pounds per square inch—almost 2,700 times the pressure of the air around us, 60 times that of the deepest known lobster habitat, and more than twice the force at the bottom of the Pacific’s Mariana Trench.

At such extreme pressure, cellular activities cease, causing instant death, and the flesh disconnects from the exoskeleton. When the lobsters emerge six to eight minutes later, the succulent meat slips right out of the shell. The meat is then resubmerged in a bag, and the pressure is cranked up to 87,000 psi, destroying listeria and other food-borne bacteria. 

Because the force is uniform at all points, the flesh remains perfectly intact.

“Some folks from the FDA were up here last week,” Shucks owner John Hathaway says. “There was one woman who just wouldn’t smile at all. Then I had her shuck a lobster and she lit right up.” No one can resist the charm of the Big Mother Shucker.

This looks like a classic differentiation strategy to me:

From their website: "Shucks Maine Lobster is a Maine-based seafood processing business that has revolutionized the way the world eats Maine Lobster. Located close to the source, we buy the best Maine lobster and shellfish at the wharf and sell it fresh, raw, and out of the shell. Our office Our seafood is carefully prepared for chefs and shipped around the country directly from Maine."

"We offer a line of unique Gourmet Maine Lobster products targeted for the supermarket and food service industries. We feature conveniently packaged Gourmet Maine Lobster Meat (knuckle/claw) and Gourmet Maine Lobster Tails-the first ever raw, fresh and perfectly shaped claws, knuckles, and tails. We also offer the tender leg meat in what we call Lobster Spaghetti."

Sauté it. Poach it. Infuse it with flavor. Use your imagination. Shucks opens up new territory for creative chefs. We are your sous-chefs, helping you to celebrate seafood in countless new ways!

And, the Big Mother Shucker is just one more element supporting that differentiation strategy!