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Post subject: New lobster shelling method revealed
 Posted: Oct 01, 2006 - 10:09 AM
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Puffer
Joined: Dec 31, 1969
Posts: 73
Status: Offline
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New lobster shelling method revealed
September 28, 2006 By Glenn Adams Associated Press
found in Times Argus, VT
RICHMOND, Maine — Tired of picking the meat out of your boiled Maine lobster? A new method of shucking lobster so the shells are no longer a messy byproduct for those who serve and dine on Maine's famous seafood was unveiled Wednesday.
Shucks Maine Lobster, which distributes in the United States, signed an agreement Wednesday that will help the business pick up steam overseas. A Paris-based company called Elafood expects to distribute as much as a half million pounds a year across Europe, a company official said.
More than half of Maine-caught lobster is now processed in Canada, according to the state's Lobster Promotion Council. Gov. John Baldacci said the budding Maine business advances the state's goal to process more homegrown goods, whether it's blueberries, lumber or seafood, in the state.
Baldacci's predecessor, Angus King, used to say, "Never let a fish leave Maine with its head on." Now Baldacci has added a new twist.
"Maine as a name sells," the governor said as he visited Shucks' small processing plant, located in a former shoemaking plant in this small southern-Maine town near the coast.
Shucks president, John Hathaway, said the idea behind his business is simple: chefs love Maine lobster, but they hate the mess and fuss of the shell. No chef, he said, buys steak with the horns still on.
"Welcome to the home of the only fresh, raw, hand-shucked lobster in the world," Hathaway told his guests.
Maine is by far the nation's biggest lobster-producing state, accounting for 80 percent of America's landings. Last year was another record year, with 60 million pounds pulled in at a value approaching $300 million.
But to lobster lovers everywhere, its mouthwatering image also brings up thoughts of cracking the red shells, picking out the meat and finally cleaning up the mess. Shucks is changing that.
Under the process unveiled Wednesday, 200 pounds of live lobster are loaded into a large, cage-like cylinder, which is submerged in water and put under intense pressure in an 80,000-pound machine about the size of a delivery truck on end. The process dispatches the lobsters, loosens their meat from the shells and at the same time gets rid of pathogens and bacteria.
Workers in assembly line fashion finish the job by easily picking the meat from the shells, and making sure that portions of each serving are roughly uniform. The meat is then packed in vacuum-sealed bags for distribution.
"The tail, the two claws, the knuckles and the legs, are all individually weighed," said Armand Fleury of Richmond, one of the workers in the Shucks plant.
The hydrostatic pressure cooking process was copied from one developed by the Army to prepare MREs — meals ready to eat — for troops. Shucks began full operations in April.
Hathaway distinguished his company's process, which preserves raw, fresh lobster, from processed used elsewhere in which lobsters are cooked and then frozen.
On the Net: Shucks Maine Lobster: www.shucksmaine.com/ |
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