How to Crack a Lobsters Without Cracker

It’s happened to all of us at one time or another. You have made a lovely lobster dish and you are so excited to eat it, but then disaster happens.

You can’t find your best lobster crackers! What are you going to do?

Thankfully there are other ways to gain access to the lobster’s meat that you have worked so hard to prepare.

You will not have to run to the store for some crackers or call all your friends to see if you can borrow some from someone. This process will allow you to enjoy your lobster without having crackers on hand.

If you are ready to learn more, read on!

What Tools Should You Avoid Using?

Many people are tempted to head to the garage and grab some tools like pliers or vice grips or even a screwdriver for this process.

The trouble with doing this is that you can contaminate your dinner with these items and it can be hard on the tools to be covered in fish when they are done with being used in this manner.

Likewise, you should be careful about using nutcrackers for this process as they will be hard to get clean and they might smell fishy for good after being used in this way.

Additionally, these tools are not usually shaped correctly for this process and you might actually damage or break them trying to use them as lobster crackers.

Lastly, you should never use a small knife to try to cut into your lobster. You are more likely to accidentally injure yourself, or just knock the whole thing onto the floor than you are to get into your lobster successfully when you use a knife.

How to Crack a Lobster Without Crackers

The best method of getting your lobster prepped to eat just requires the strength of your hands and some patience.

You will find that this method works well enough that you might not even need to use your lobster crackers as much as you thought you did!

1. Twist off the claws and knuckles

This is easy to do with a firm grip, but you can also make sure that you have some paper towel on hand to dry off these parts of the lobster before you start twisting them off.

Be careful of the spines that are sometimes sticking out of these parts so that you do not stab yourself as you grip and twist.

2. Use a Chef’s knife to break the thick spots

You will use the dull side of the knife to break or split these parts of the lobster’s shell, but do so very carefully and return to using your hands as soon as you have started the process of splitting open the thick parts of the shell.

There is no reason to try and make the knife do this entire task as it is not really safe to use the knife in this way.

Some people use a cleaver to smack the shell and break it open, but always do this carefully so that you do not injure yourself or cause the knife or the lobster to fall on the floor.

This can be a great way to break open thick parts of the shell but should always be done with caution.

3. Twist off the small moving parts

These small claw bits do not have any meat in them anyway, so you can remove them and throw them out every time anyway.

You might have gotten used to cracking around them with the lobster crackers but they will not have any meat no matter what tool you use to access them.

4. Remove shells and pull out the meat with a small fork

Remove all of the cracked shell bits and use a small fork to remove the meat from the shell.

You can access almost every part of the lobster in this way. You will be surprised at how easy it actually is to extract the meat from the shell even when you have created small access points in the larger parts of the body.

5. Suck the meat out of the small legs

Most people who do not want to bother with cracking the entirety of the small legs open will actually just break off the ends of these legs and suck out the meat inside.

This is much more efficient and saves you from having to break open such a small shell and then extract bits and pieces of shell material from the meat. You will probably find that this is much easier than what you were doing before with the lobster crackers anyway.

6. Don’t Go Crazy

Don’t make yourself nuts about trying to get every single bit of meat out of the lobster if you do not have the right tools to accomplish this safely.

You will be able to enjoy most of the lobster even without your lobster crackers and there is no need to hurt yourself trying to extract every last bit of meat just as a matter of principle.

Eating Lobster without Lobster Crackers is Easy

You might find that this process was so much easier than you expected that you do not miss your lobster crackers.

Many people choose to eat lobster in this way so avoid the use of tools that add time to the cracking process overall.

Make sure that you always think about your safety and the safety of those in the kitchen with you if you are going to use large knives to break the thick parts of the shell. The rest of these steps can be done with your hands.

Enjoying lobster does not have to be a misery if you have lost your lobster crackers and you can easily get access to the meat inside your lobster dinner using this method.

You might even find that you prefer this method of eating lobster.