Steaming lobsters is practically a rite of passage in coastal communities from Maine to Nova Scotia. At a traditional lobster boil, you’ll often hear locals chanting the same mantra: “When the antennae go, the lobster’s show.” It’s folk wisdom, and it works.
But let’s not forget the Downeast humor around this ritual. One Maine fisherman once told me, “You’re not really cooking a lobster—you’re just helping it turn the right color.” He wasn’t wrong. The red pigment, astaxanthin, only reveals itself after heat destroys the blue-green proteins.
Fun fact: the largest recorded lobster was over 44 pounds, caught off Nova Scotia in 1977. If you ever steamed one that size, you’d need a very big pot and about an hour—and probably a forklift to serve it.
