Sous vide at home – Lobster tail 20 mm thick, 60°C during 41 minutes
by jean-francois on Sep.11, 2009, under Recipes, Time and Accurate Temperature
This is my first try with cooking shellfish sous vide : a lobster tail.
I looked at Thomas Keller’s time and temperature table which mentioned a cooking temperature at 60°C during 15 minutes for a lobster tail. I am realizing more and more that Baldwin’s Sous Vide Guide is very practical. The information about the thickness is key. Douglas Baldwin indicates a 20 mm shellfish is pasteurized at 60.5°C at the condition being cooked during 41 minutes. I have decided to follow Douglas’ recommendations.
I took off the shell and seasoned the lobster tail with salt, pepper and a frozen teaspoon of “extra vierge” olive oil. After cooking I seared the lobster tail some seconds in a skillet with some olive oil.
The result was very good. The flesh of the lobster was moist and had a very pleasant flavour of olive oil.
Another successful try!
Jean-François
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January 4th, 2010 on 4:06 AM
>>I looked at Thomas Keller’s time and temperature table which mentioned a cooking temperature at 60°C during 15 minutes for a lobster tail.<<
What is important to note, and I goofed here myself, Keller kills the lobster by pouring boiling water over it and let it step for 2 or 3 minutes. This helps tremendously with getting the meat out of the shell.
March 12th, 2010 on 6:41 AM
Nice, thanks for the quick and easy notes, worked perfectly. Delicious! I’ll never be able to eat “tough” lobster again.