Lobster is revered as a decadent delight. Perhaps that reverence is counterintuitively why home cooks are much more likely to toss out flavor-building parts once the meat is gone. The sweet juicy meat is the prize and the shell is often seen as a pesky safe to crack open and leave behind when you empty it. And it shouldn’t be—the shells can be just as valuable. Throwing out lobster shells is one of the biggest kitchen mistakes of all and it leaves flavor behind on the table (or in the trash).
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 Mashed | 2021-10-08 01:00:04 |  203,701 Views |
Big Mistakes Everyone Makes When Cooking Lobster
Just as you would use vegetable scraps to make vegetable stock or beef bones to make beef stock lobster shells can be used to make lobster stock because they pack so much flavor. These often-discarded pieces should be mined for all they have to give dishes more depth than (or even without) the meat itself. Soup is always a great way to stretch the “leftover” ingredients of a meal but it’s not the only option; there are other ways to use leftover shells that will add richness to your food.
The obvious answer for anyone making their own broth is of course to make lobster broth with the shells. You can then make a lobster bisque seafood stew or add a little broth as you cook.
But there are other brilliant ways to use up leftover lobster shells. James Peterson a James Beard Award-winning cookbook author noted in a blog post that many of the flavonoids in lobster shells are fat-soluble. If you’re buttering a loaf of bread for a lobster roll why not infuse that butter with lobster flavoring? Making an enriched butter and then making a compound butter with lemon herbs and garlic is an instant appetizer that’s spread on toast. Infusing oil with lobster shells is another way to add lobster flavor to a dish.
