If you are the sort of cook who blanches when fresh, troll-caught king salmon costs more than $8 a pound, you're going to want to own a copy of Boston restaurateur Jasper White's Lobster at Home on the day you tumble for one or two of these shellfish kings in your local market. Lobster may well be relatively inexpensive in some parts of the country, but at anything from $9.99 to $13.99 a pound in cities where the delicious beasts from the deep must be flown in, well, a cook is likely to think twice about the purchase. For about $15, you get four ounces of actual edible lobster. To tread in such waters without an appropriate guide is, at best, foolhardy. Thank goodness for Jasper White.

Lobster at Home is the most comprehensive book available on the subject of selecting, cooking, and eating lobster. With this book in hand, you will know how to find and buy the best possible lobster for your money. And then, with a lobster at home scuttling across the kitchen counter, you will know what do with the beast, how to dispatch it, and a world of variations on how to cook it. Knowing what to do is an important issue when half the recipes in the book seem to start out asking for $30 worth of lobster. There are no recipes that call for anything resembling Lobster Helper.

White's enthusiasm for lobster is infectious, and his collection of recipes that rely either on lobster meat or broth, or enhance the experience of eating it, are nothing short of delicious. It will probably always remain something of a special-occasion treat for anyone who doesn't grow up in or marry into a lobster-fishing family. The special nature of this food demands the careful and creative handling espoused by Jasper White. If you ever buy and serve lobster, use this book. --Schuyler Ingle


From Publishers Weekly
James Beard Award-winner as Best Chef in the Northeast in 1991, White (Jasper White's Cooking from New England) empowers any home cook who has ever been intimidated by this succulent beast. Through text and illustration, White demystifies how, where and when to choose a lobster for home preparation; how to cook it, whether boiled, steamed, grilled, broiled or pan-roasted; and how to eat it and revel in the sensuality of the experience. He even makes killing a lobster less daunting. An excellent repertoire of nearly 75 recipes brings the lobster up from the deep and into the light of the everyday kitchen. Cambodian-Style Lobster Soup gains luster from Thai chilies, ginger, shiittakes, lime and mint. Lobster Pizza can be served as an hors d'oeuvre or main course. Lobster salads and other cold plates include the World-Famous Maine Lobster Roll and the extravagant Millionaire's Salad: Warm Greens with Lobster, Foie Gras and Papaya. Modifying the ingenious Lobster with Vanilla Butter Cream for the home chef, White doesn't ignore such classics as Lobster Thermidor and Lobster Newburg. Lobster Ravioli requires time and effort, but summery Spaghetti with Lobsters, Tomatoes and Capers is a snap. Additional recipes are gathered from fellow chefs: Joel Robuchon, Larry Forgione, Wolfgang Puck and others. In sum, White admirably fills what has been an unaddressed niche. Photos unseen by PW. BOMC/Good Cook selection. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
In this wonderful and engrossing book, White (Jasper White's Cooking from New England, LJ 11/15/89), formerly the chef/owner of one of Boston's best restaurants, succeeds thoroughly in making the idea of cooking lobster not only unintimidating but indeed almost irresistible. His enthusiasm and knowledge about his subject are abundant, and he writes with humor and warmth. His recipes, from his signature Pan-Roasted Lobster with Chervil & Chives (including more than half a dozen variations) to a more down-home Lobster Hash, sound delectable. Highly recommended [BOMC's Good Cook selection.]Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
The lobster, so this renowned Boston chef and author (Jasper White's Cooking from New England) asserts, is one of nature's most perfect foods. It is low in calories and cholesterol (if not dipped in oceans of butter) and, thanks to transportation wizardry, readily accessible throughout the U.S. Yet, to many, the lobster remains a mystery. How to pick? Where to buy? Do recipes really extend beyond boiling and buttering? The answers to all these questions and more are found in this 75-recipe book, featuring many that are traditional, some that are nouvelle, and many represent variations on cuisines. A pasta with lobster and vegetables appears in four seasonal guises, for instance. Few of the recipes are prepared in 30 minutes or less, but the information and results are worth every penny and every minute. Barbara Jacobs


Review
Mayor Thomas M. Meninocity of BostonThe historical significance of lobster to the great city of Boston, combined with the talent of Jasper White, is bound to be a recipe for success.


Review
Mayor Thomas M. Menino city of Boston The historical significance of lobster to the great city of Boston, combined with the talent of Jasper White, is bound to be a recipe for success.


Book Description
With its vibrant color, its delicate and luscious flavor and its excellent nutritional value, it's no wonder that lobster is such a favorite. Yet for all its specialness, lobster is actually an affordable luxury when made at home. And as a food, the meat in a one-pound lobster has only 98 calories, 13 milligrams of cholesterol (less than the same amount of skinless chicken) and is high in the Omega-3 acids known to help reduce cholesterol levels.More than five years in preparation, Lobster at Home will teach anyone, from the most inexperienced novice to the seasoned professional, to master the art of cooking lobster. Written clearly and with care for important detail, Lobster at Home goes far beyond any other seafood cookbook. It explains everything from how to choose just the right lobster for a delectable dinner to how to extract every last morsel of meat from a cooked lobster. A treasure trove of information, it also contains completely reliable chapters on lobster anatomy, the basic cooking techniques and the essential equipment. Recipes cover the full range of dishes: soups, chowders, stews, salads and sandwiches, as well as pot-pies, pastas, risottos and classic main courses, along with a special chapter on chefs' creations. Now you can easily turn out restaurant favorites such as Lobster Bisque, Baked Stuffed Lobster and Lobster Fra Diavolo right at home, and at a fraction of the cost.Among this book's unique features:a beautiful illustration showing how and when to select lobster, helping the cook know at a glance when hardshells and soft-shells are available, as well as the best pricesa handy chart giving cooking times for each size of lobstera list of recommended sources for mail-ordering live lobstersmany recipes that call for the use of already-cooked lobsterFrom cover to cover, this is a book that welcomes all kinds of lobster lovers who have always wanted to cook lobster at home for family and friends.


About the Author
Jasper White grew up on a farm in New Jersey, where he learned to cook from his Italian grandmother. He is one of America's leading chefs and teachers of contemporary American cooking. He began his career in 1973, first attending the Culinary Institute of America, then working in restaurants in New York, San Francisco, Florida and Seattle. In 1983 Jasper and his wife, Nancy, opened Jasper's, one of two Boston restaurants to be awarded four and a half stars by The Boston Globe and named Boston Magazine's Best of Boston eleven times out of twelve years. Jasper is currently a consultant for Legal Sea Foods, a world-renowned seafood company. He has been a guest on Julia Child's television series Cooking with Master Chefs and a winner of the James Beard Best Chef in the Northeast award. He lives in Lincoln, Massachusetts, with his wife and three children.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Learning About Lobster with Jasper White

Boston chef Jasper White came to New York cooking school De Gustibus at Macy's recently to demonstrate techniques and recipes from his impressive new book, Lobster at Home, to a rapt audience of lobster lovers. White is recognized as today's foremost authority on the foods of New England, and if anyone could convince apprehensive home cooks that cooking lobster in their own kitchens is a manageable proposition, it's this self-effacing, calm, and personable chef.

White prepared a number of luscious lobster recipes, offered tips on choosing and buying live lobsters, and demonstrated each step in the process of steaming them and extracting their meat. By the end of the class, we were convinced: Cooking lobster at home is not only possible, it's affordable, celebratory, and easier than you might think, once you've mastered the basics.

About Jasper White and Lobster at Home

Jasper White's Boston restaurant, Jasper's, was rated one of the top restaurants in the city every year of the 12 it was open. White closed the restaurant in 1995 at the height of its success (he says it became too difficult to run the business and have any time at all to spend with his three children), but the reputation he established there as a master chef endures. Today White is a consultant for Legal Sea Foods, a well-known Boston seafood restaurant and company. He's been working on Lobster at Home for the past five years, and it shows in the care that so obviously went into every detail.

White writes in the book that "good cooking means understanding the food you prepare; no fact or idea about lobster is unrelated to its cooking." He shares his years of accumulated knowledge about this revered crustacean through impeccable advice on cooking techniques; detailed illustrations showing lobster anatomy, how to select and prepare the beasts, what equipment to use, and how to dismantle them after they're cooked; charts with cooking times for lobsters of various sizes; information on how the seasons affect the quality and price of lobster; recommended mail-order sources; and wonderful tidbits of lobster history and lore.

And of course, White shows readers how to bring out the best in lobster through his mouth-watering recipes. Chowders and bisques, canap￯﾿ﾽs and casseroles, potpies and pastas, salads and sandwiches—the dishes in Lobster at Home will keep lobster lovers happy for years to come, both for special occasions and for everyday meals. Many of the recipes call only for already-cooked lobster meat, commonly available at better fish markets—a great option for anyone who'd rather avoid dealing with and killing a live lobster (see below for White's tips on how to judge whether cooked lobster meat is a good deal at your market). White says his kids will testify to how well-tested the recipes are: For months, he said, "They'd come home from school and ask, 'Daddy, what kind of lobster are we having for dinner?' They never got tired of it."

About the Menu

We started with a decadent lobster canap￯﾿ﾽ that White described as "definitely bucking the olive-oil/Mediterranean trend—this is pure New England, with its mix of dairy and seafood." Delicate lobster salad made with homemade, tarragon-scented mayonnaise and diced cucumber and scallions for crunch was spooned onto squares of toasted pumpernickel bread, sprinkled with shreds of white cheddar cheese, and popped under the broiler until the cheese was bubbling and browned but the salad still cool within. Utterly luscious. Next came a frittata made with lobster and leeks—an elegant dish that highlights lobster's sweet flavor and succulent texture to perfection. White suggested serving the frittata cut into small squares as an hors d'oeuvre, or sliced into larger wedges and served with a simple green salad for a sublime light lunch. The Taittinger Brut La Fran￯﾿ﾽaise champagne we drank was the ideal accompaniment—light-bodied and fresh, to contrast with the rich dishes, but with enough round, toasty, buttery flavors to perfectly complement the sweet lobster flavor.

Next came a break from dining while White demonstrated "Lobster 101": steaming whole lobsters, extracting the meat, and using the shells and body to make lobster stock. That stock was used to fantastic effect in the next dish, Gazpacho with Lobster. This fresh and crunchy cold soup, made in the traditional way, with pureed stale bread, tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers, was suffused with lobster flavor from the lobster stock used as its base and from the chunks of meat studding it. Lightly pan-fried lobster dumplings followed—wonton wrappers were stuffed with a mousselike forcemeat made from pureed shrimp and scallops combined with diced vegetables and lobster meat, and served drizzled with gingery soy sauce and sprinkled with scallions. With both dishes we drank a wonderful Mersault from Louis Jadot. It was reasonably dry and fresh but satisfyingly creamy, rich, earthy, and mouth-filling—a classic match with lobster. Delicious secret-recipe fresh ginger cookies, served alongside buttery chocolate-chip shortbread, were our fittingly simple finale.

Tips from Jasper White When you're using cucumbers in a salad like White's classic lobster salad, there's an important trick to keep in mind. "Cucumbers contain a lot of water," he said, "and it will release and make the salad soggy if you don't get some out." He recommends dicing them, sprinkling them lightly with salt, letting them drain in a colander for 15 or 20 minutes, and giving them a gentle squeeze before adding them to the salad.

Buying cooked lobster meat can be a great deal, and a great option for dishes that call only for the meat, especially if you shop at a reputable fish market that deals in high-quality lobsters. Here's White's standard for judging whether the cooked meat is a deal or a steal: "It's a good deal is if it's five times the price of whole live lobsters or less—because the average yield on lobster is about 20 percent," White says. "So if you go into a store and lobsters are about $5 a pound, if the cooked meat is $23 a pound, it's actually cheaper for you to buy the lobster meat, and you don't have to do any of the work." It works out for the lobster vendor, too, because he can use up lobsters with only one claw or no claws at all—lobsters he can't get full price for.

White knows many people are concerned about causing lobsters undue pain before they're killed. He's consulted a neurologist who has worked on lobsters for 25 years for the final word on the most merciful methods. "Splitting the lobster down the middle is an instant kill," he says, "and it's a great thing to do if you're going to grill them." But for the more common steaming or boiling, White learned that the largest ganglion in the lobster nervous system—the equivalent of the brain—is extremely close to the surface of the shell in the head, and that means the lobster is dead within 30 seconds of being plunged into steam or boiling water. They likely detect a temperature change, but nothing more extreme. The infamous thrashing around, if it happens, results from muscle spasms as the meat cooks, not desperate attempts to escape.

White has a number of terrific tips for getting the last shred of meat out of cooked lobsters, but here's my favorite: Some of the most succulent bits of meat come from the walking legs, the eight little appendages on each side of the body. If you're eating a whole lobster, you can suck the meat right out—but if you want to use it in a dish, it's not quite so easy. That is, unless you know White's trick. He snaps each leg in half and lines the halves up on a cutting board, broken end up. Then he takes a rolling pin and rolls it gently over the legs, moving from the bottom up towards the broken end. The meat just pops right out. Voila!

A last trick that's not lobster-related: White discovered on a trip to China that cilantro stems are often used as an ingredient of their own in some dishes and stay tender and flavorful. Since then, he's stopped bothering to separate the stems from the leaves when chopping cilantro for a dish. He just washes the bunch, lays it on a cutting board, and chops the leafy part whole.

ANNOTATION

Winner of The Food & Wine Best of the Best Award for cookbook of the year.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

With its vibrant color, its delicate and luscious flavor and its excellent nutritional value, no wonder lobster is such a favorite. Yet for all its specialness, lobster is actually an affordable luxury when made at home. And as a food, the meat in a one-pound lobster has only 98 calories, 13 milligrams of cholesterol (less than the same amount of skinless chicken) and is high in the Omega-3 acids known to help reduce cholesterol levels.

More than five years in preparation, Lobster at Home will teach anyone, from the most inexperienced novice to the seasoned professional, to master the art of cooking lobster. Written clearly and with care for important detail, Lobster at Home goes far beyond any other seafood cookbook. It explains everything from how to choose just the right lobster for a delectable dinner to how to extract every last morsel of meat from a cooked one. A treasure-trove of information, the book also contains completely reliable chapters on lobster anatomy, the basic cooking techniques and the essential equipment. Recipes cover the full range of dishes: soups, chowders, stews, salads and sandwiches, as well as pot-pies, pastas, risottos and classic main courses, along with a special chapter on chefs' creations. Now you can easily turn out restaurant favorites such as Lobster Bisque, Baked Stuffed Lobster and Lobster Fra Diavolo right at home, and at a fraction of the cost.

Among this book's unique features:A beautiful illustration showing how and when to select lobster, helping the cook know at a glance when hardshells and soft-shells are available, as well as the best pricesA handy chart giving cooking times for each size of lobsterA list of recommended sources for ordering live lobsters by mailRecipes that call for the use of already-cooked lobster

From cover to cover, this is a book that will appeal to lobster-lovers who have always wanted to cook lobster at home for family and friends.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

James Beard Award-winner as Best Chef in the Northeast in 1991, White (Jasper White's Cooking from New England) empowers any home cook who has ever been intimidated by this succulent beast. Through text and illustration, White demystifies how, where and when to choose a lobster for home preparation; how to cook it, whether boiled, steamed, grilled, broiled or pan-roasted; and how to eat it and revel in the sensuality of the experience. He even makes killing a lobster less daunting. An excellent repertoire of nearly 75 recipes brings the lobster up from the deep and into the light of the everyday kitchen. Cambodian-Style Lobster Soup gains luster from Thai chilies, ginger, shiittakes, lime and mint. Lobster Pizza can be served as an hors d'oeuvre or main course. Lobster salads and other cold plates include the World-Famous Maine Lobster Roll and the extravagant Millionaire's Salad: Warm Greens with Lobster, Foie Gras and Papaya. Modifying the ingenious Lobster with Vanilla Butter Cream for the home chef, White doesn't ignore such classics as Lobster Thermidor and Lobster Newburg. Lobster Ravioli requires time and effort, but summery Spaghetti with Lobsters, Tomatoes and Capers is a snap. Additional recipes are gathered from fellow chefs: Joel Robuchon, Larry Forgione, Wolfgang Puck and others. In sum, White admirably fills what has been an unaddressed niche.Good Cook selection

Library Journal

In this wonderful and engrossing book, White (Jasper White's Cooking from New England, LJ 11/15/89), formerly the chef/owner of one of Boston's best restaurants, succeeds thoroughly in making the idea of cooking lobster not only unintimidating but indeed almost irresistible. His enthusiasm and knowledge about his subject are abundant, and he writes with humor and warmth. His recipes, from his signature Pan-Roasted Lobster with Chervil & Chives (including more than half a dozen variations) to a more down-home Lobster Hash, sound delectable. Highly recommended. [BOMC's Good Cook selection.]

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Jasper White is the authority on New England food, but seafood especially, and Lobster at Home is simply the last word on the subject. It's filled with precise information and fantastic recipes, which come not only from Jasper's kitchen but from his soul.
 — Mark Bittman

What a refreshing read! Mr. White's personable text and clear, savory-sounding recipes kept me up, stomach growling, to the wee hours. I was left wondering why I don't cook lobster more often. A must for the lobster lover.
 — Jim Peterson

Short of driving to Boothbay Harbor, Maine, to eat the first lobster of the season on the decks of the Lobsterman's Co-op, grab hold of this book. Jasper has demystified this noble creature. Read about how the seasons affect the meat. And once you've done that, pour yourself a chilled glass of Amontillado as you slip down one of Jasper's Hot Tomalley Toasts while stirring a steaming pot of Sugar Pumpkin, Sweet Corn and Lobster Soup.
 — Shire

In New England, where lobstere rules, Jasper White is the undisputed kind of chefs. Here are excellent recipes, fascinating information and useful tips you can really count on, making for a delightful book that is sure to join the short list of cookbooks you actually use again and again.
 — John Willoughby & Chris Schlesinger