2. Cut lobster tails in half, shell lobster claws.
In summer we get new shells, soft-shelled lobsters.
Unsurprisingly, the merits of hard-shell and soft-shell lobsters are almost a matter of religious dogma.
Soft-shell lobsters, which are harvested in summer and typically served in restaurants, are the least expensive this year, while hard-shell lobsters, which are usually no smaller than a pound and a half, are slightly more expensive.
Hard-shell lobsters, which sometimes are stored live in tanks filled with frigid water for months, have "a little more of a metallic taste".
A relatively warm winter prompted soft-shell lobsters to appear in June, about a month early, and their abundance turned into an overabundance.
It requires no prompting for almost anyone in the Maine fishery to say that meat of soft-shell lobsters is, as Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen's Association, puts it, "incredibly fresh and tender".
Fishermen from Maine, who bring in the overwhelming majority of the American catch, largely harvest recently molted, soft-shell lobsters in a season that is concentrated in July and August.
Before and after Maine's summer season, it's time for the Canadian hard-shell lobster.
In animals they are visible in fats (butter), egg yolks, feathers (canary), and shells (lobster).
