JIM WELLER wrote to DAVE DRUM <=-
Lobster, as I see it, is a triumph of marketing.
Nope, it's all about taste (marvellous), and a free and open market
of supply (diminishing) and demand (increasing). You also live in
the wrong part of the world, as I do as well now.
And how do you increase demand? Marketing! Ask Ron Popiel.
Lobsters were so abundant [...] people thought of them as trash
food.
Partially true but that was a long time ago and before fast
transportation and refrigeration so the market for them was strictly local. Similarly venison was dirt cheap in the woodland areas and
buffalo so common on the plains that hunters shot hundreds in a day
just for the tongues and tenderloins. And the country had billions
of passenger pigeons for a penny a piece.
Lobsters were known as the cockroaches of the sea.
the colony was forced to sign contracts promising that
indentured servants wouldn't be fed lobster more than three
times a week.
Doubtful. It was also said that English trades people were forced to
sign contracts that apprentices didn't have to eat salmon more than
three times a week.
Look around there are exhibits of old papers saying just that. Which, if
not authentic, are very well done forgeries. And, since I can see no
profit motive in such an exhibit, I choose to believe their authenticity.
Re: prices. Yes they have gone up over time. In 1939 when my dad was
being shipped out to England in WWII he had a couple of weeks from
when he got off the train from Windsor (Walkerville) to Halifax
before the ship took off. He had lobster for the first trime in his
life and they were 25 cents each steaming hot at street stalls. He
made $88 per month as a one stripe leading aircraftsman. So one
lobster was 0.284% of a month's pay.
My housemate (at the time) and I developed an oil price : Big Mac ratio
that proved uncannily accurate (mid-1980s).
When I lived in Newfoundland in 1972 they were $1.20 per pound
there. I was making $2.50 per hour so lobsters were the about the
same price, adjusted for inflation.
In the last two years lobster prices flucuated between $6 and $8 CDN
per pound dockside and as high as $16 to $24 retail, live in
Yellowknife, so about double what they used to be in real terms when
they were more plentiful.
I still prefer shrimp. (also sometimes called cockroaches of the ocean)
MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06
Title: Le Montrachet Lobster Bisque
Categories: Lobster, Soups, Chilies, Alcohol, Dairy
Yield: 8 servings
MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06
Title: Gilbert Le Coze's Bouillabaisse - Le Bernardin (PT ONE)
Categories: Soups, Seafood
Yield: 4 servings
MMMMM-------------------------FISH SOUP------------------------------
5 lb Scraps & bones from
- white-fleshed fish
1 sm Conger eel; skinned,
- filleted, bones reserved *
2 md (to 3) sea robins; skinned,
- filleted, bones reserved *
2 md (to lg) blue crabs; chopped
1/2 c Extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 c Thin sliced fennel
2 Leeks; white only, thin
- sliced
1 lg Onion; thin sliced
3 Shallots; fine chopped
1 Whole head garlic; peeled,
- fine chopped
1 c Dry white wine
1 Bouquet garni; bay leaf,
- parsley, thyme
3 qt Water
3 Ripe tomatoes; chopped
3 tb Tomato paste
pn Cayenne pepper
Salt
pn (large) saffron
MMMMM-------------------------FISH STEW------------------------------
7 c Fish soup
1 lb New red potatoes; peeled,
- sliced 1/4"
12 sm Mussels; scrubbed, debearded
12 Little Neck clams; scrubbed
4 lg Sea scallops; halved
- horizontally
12 oz Red snapper; filleted, in
- 4 pieces
12 oz Monkfish; in medallions
8 sl French bread; toasted,
- rubbed w/garlic & olive
- oil
MMMMM--------------------------ROUILLE-------------------------------
1 sm Diced red chile; seeded
10 Pistils saffron
1 tb Warm water
4 sl Fresh white bread; crust off
1/4 c Fish soup
4 cl Garlic cloves
1/4 c Extra-virgin olive oil.
TO MAKE THE FISH SOUP: Place all the fish bones and scraps, along with
the crabs, in a large piece of cheesecloth and tie securely.
Heat the oil in a 10 to 12 quart pot. Add the fennel, leeks, onion,
shallots and garlic along with the eel and sea robin fillets and cook
slowly, until the vegetables are tender. Add the wine. Place the bag
of fish bones and the bouquet garni in the pot and add the tomatoes,
tomato paste and water to completely cover the fish bones.
Season lightly with cayenne pepper and salt. Bring to a simmer and
cook very slowly for two and a half hours.
Remove the bag of fish bones and the bouquet garni and drain well.
Pass the soup mixture through a food mill, add the saffron, place in
a large saucepan and simmer for 45 minutes to reduce it further.
Adjust the seasonings. Strain through several thicknesses of
cheesecloth. There should be between two and a half and three quarts.
This soup can be prepared in advance and frozen.
CONTINUED TO PART TWO
RECIPE FROM:
https://cooking.nytimes.com
Uncle Dirty Dave's Archives
MMMMM
MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06
Title: Gilbert Le Coze's Bouillabaisse - Le Bernardin (PT TWO)
Categories: Soups, Seafood
Yield: 4 servings
DIRECTIONS CONTINUE
TO MAKE THE STEW: Heat two cups of the fish soup in a saucepan and
cook the potatoes in it until they are tender. Drain the potatoes and
wrap in foil to keep warm.
Transfer the fish soup used for the potatoes to a three-quart saucepan
and place the mussels and clams in it. Steam the mussels and clams,
covered, until they just open. Remove from the heat and keep covered.
Place the remaining fish soup in a saucepan just large enough to hold
all the rest of the seafood. Heat to just barely simmering, add the
remaining seafood and cook until just done, removing each type of
seafood to a warm dish as it is cooked.
TO MAKE THE ROUILLE: Crumble the chile and saffron into a small bowl
and moisten with the water. Set aside.
Break up the white bread, place it in a food processor and process to
make fine bread crumbs. Transfer the crumbs to a small bowl and
moisten with fish soup. Do not rinse the food processor.
With the processor running, drop the garlic cloves in through the seed
tube, then add the chili and saffron mixture. Turn off the processor
and scrape the sides of the container. Add the bread and process to
combine. With the processor running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil
and continue processing several minutes, until the mixture is thick
and smooth, like mayonnaise.
YIELDS: About 2/3 cup.
TO SERVE THE BOUILLABAISSE: divide the potato rounds among four
shallow, warmed soup plates. Arrange the cooked fish over the
potatoes, then divide the mussels and clams, with the top shells
removed, among the four plates.
Stir some of the soup used to poach the seafood into the rouille, then
wisk the rouille back into the soup. Bring to barely simmering, then
pour over the seafood in the plates and serve with croutons.
Yield: Four servings.
* NOTE: If conger eel and sea robin are unavailable, substitute one
pound of monkfish fillets and two or three fish heads to the bag of
fish scraps.
RECIPE FROM:
https://cooking.nytimes.com
Uncle Dirty Dave's Archives
MMMMM
... FAILED PRODUCT: Whisky-filled donuts...
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