Butter Poached Lobster Tails

This tasty treat is the one of the tastiest ways to prepare lobster tails.  They have a rich buttery flavor that isn’t quite the same as grilled.  (Only a barbarian would steam or boil lobster tails.)  It does use a lot of butter but you can freeze and reuse it forever.

 

The ingredients can’t get much simpler:  lobster tails, butter and 1 Tb of water. 

 

It can be daunting removing the meat from the tails.  You’ll need a pair of sharp scissors.  Some recipes say to cut along the back of the tail.  I find the shell chips and breaks and the meat doesn’t want to let go of the shell.  The result is tasty but ugly.   However, you have easy access to that nasty looking greyish thing, making it easy to remove.  I’ll be honest.  I don’t know what that is and I don’t want to know.  It looks disgusting.  Every lobster recipe I’ve seen mentions it but I skip over that part because as I said, I don’t want to know what it is.  If I knew I’d never eat lobster again. 

Cutting the underside of the shell is much easier for me.   The shell pulls away easily from the meat.  This allows me to run my finger between the meat and the top of the shell, easily loosening it.  Then you simply lift the meat out of the shell.

Isn’t this prettier?  You’ll need to search (on the underside—don’t mess up that pretty tail) to find that nasty whatever-it-is and remove it.  What is that—his intestine?  No, don’t tell me, I really don’t want to know.

When you poach lobster tails in butter you have to make sure the lobster is completely submerged.  So how much butter do you use?  Unless you’ve got your own churn in the kitchen and a few gallons of cream, take the smallest saucepan that will hold the lobster tails.  Place the tails in the pan ON THEIR SIDE. 

When the lobster poaches it will curl up like a scared potato bug.   If the tails are flat in the sauce pan you’ll get a false reading of how much butter you need.  What covers them at the beginning will be insufficient once they curl and poke up.  If you prefer the finished product to be straight you’ll have to slide a wooden skewer through the lobster tail.  The problem with this is the skewer will force you to use a bigger saucepan, requiring more butter.

  

Add enough water to the saucepan to cover the lobster tails, plus ¼ inch extra.  Remove the lobster and then pour the water into a measuring cup. 

 

In this case I had 1 ¾ cup of water.  (it was still sloshing when I took a pic from the good angle.  It had settled when I took the pic from the boring angle.

1 ¾ cup of water = 3 ½ sticks of butter. 

Butter is tricky when it melts.  You don’t want it to “break” so it needs an emulsifier.  In this case 1 Tb of water does the trick.  Here’s the crazy thing:  Whether you’re using 1 ¾ cup of butter, 4 cups of butter, or half a cup, you still need exactly 1 Tb of water.  Do NOT add more water if you need a gallon of butter.  You’ll regret it.

 

Bring the tablespoon of water to a boil and add the butter in 2 Tb pieces.  Stir constantly.  Don’t have the heat too high.  Ordinarily I’d use my silicone (safe for non-stick cookware) whisk for this, but it’s too big for this tiny saucepan so I made do with a wooden chopstick.

As each piece of butter melts, add the next one, always stirring (unless you pause long enough to take a photo for your blog).  You can see how that little bit of butter makes the butter look creamy instead of “liquidy”.  

 

VERY IMPORTANT:  The temperature of the butter MUST be between 160 and 190 degrees.  Lower than 160 and it’s not hot enough to poach the lobster tails.  If it’s higher than 190 the butter will break, despite the emulsifier.   

 

When all of the butter is melted, and the temp is at least 160, add the lobster.  You can’t see ‘em but they’re in there.

You can stop stirring but you have to keep a constant watch on the temp.  If it gets close to 190 lift the pan from the burner and adjust the heat accordingly.

Poach the tails for 5-7 minutes or until the internal temp is 145 degrees.  Remove the tails to a serving plate and spoon a little of the butter on top of them.  Mmmmm delicious butter poached lobster tails!