How To Cook A Lobster Dinner

Learn how to cook a lobster dinner—it's easy and you will impress your friends and family with little effort.

To cook a lobster dinner, you need:

• Live lobsters
• Seafood seasoning blend, or plain salt
• Small red potatoes
• Corn on the cob, split in half
• Onions, cut in large chunks
• Large broccoli florets
• Melted butter
• Fresh rolls or bread
• Fresh tossed-salad
• Beverages of choice

Steps to cooking a lobster dinner:

1. Fill a very large pot about 3/4 full with seawater or salted water (use 1 tablespoon of salt per 1 quart of water). You can also use a seafood seasoning blend per package instructions. Use about 2 1/2 quarts of water for each lobster.
2. Bring the water to a full boil. Add the vegetables to the water, reduce the heat to medium-high and cook the vegetables to the desired tenderness.
3. Remove the cooked vegetables with a slotted spoon and keep warm in a covered dish in a warm oven.
   You don't want the vegetables to get cold while the lobster is cooking.
4. Bring the water back to a boil and put in the live lobsters, one at a time. Cover the pot, and bring the water to a boil again. Lower the heat and simmer about fifteen minutes for a 1 to 1 1/4 pound lobster and twenty minutes for a 1 1/2 pound lobster.
5. Serve the cooked lobster with the vegetables, fresh bread, salad and your choice of beverages.
   

If using soft-shell lobsters, reduce the cooking time by about three minutes. Lobsters will turn bright red when cooked.  Lobster twitching after placement in boiling water is due to a reflex reaction caused by sudden stimulus and not a reaction to pain. You can also substitute lobsters with shrimp, crab legs, crawfish and sausage for a delicious, low-country boil!