You didn’t always have to be rich to eat lobster

Posted by ljmacphee on October 15, 2007 under Interesting things |

When the hurricanes roll into New England, tales are always told of the poor Irish running down to the beach after a storm to fetch the beached lobsters. It’s been a long time since lobsters were a poor mans food.

Indians first put lobster to use as a fertilizer in New England. Later, the colonists arrived, and they would gather the lobsters from the tidal pools. The lobsters were then made into dinner for the household children, servants and the prisoners of the local jails.

Lobsters were gathered by hand along the shorelines on New England until around 1850. Demand for lobsters began to increase and small boats known as ’smacks’ would go out and trap the lobster. The lobsters were then brought back to the canneries along the Maine coastline. Much like tuna is today, lobster in 1936 was a cheap, canned, high protein food for the masses. Canneries wouldn’t even buy lobsters weighing less than five pounds.

In the later 1800s over fishing began to affect the canneries. Large lobsters were no longer coming in off the boats and the limit was lowered to two pounds. But in the early 1900s bringing lobster sandwiches to school was still the norm for the poor children.

Rumor has it that in 1910 John D Rockefeller Sr brought lobsters to gourmet status. The story is that a bowl of lobster stew meant for the servants table was sent to Rockefeller’s table by mistake. It was rapturously received and added to the daily menu for the family. In New York society in the early 1900s, ‘If its good enough for Rockefellar, it’s good enough for me’ was the motto.

During WWII lobsters were considered a delicacy and therefore not rationed. That’s quite a climb in social status for the critters. After WWII the boys came home from the war and America enjoyed spending its new found wealth on many things including lobster.

Since mid 1900s lobster consumption has gone from half a pound per person to one pound per person. The price has rapidly increased and fishermen have trouble bringing home lobsters over the one pound limit. Soon lobster will join much rarer dishes as trapping limits become tighter and the scarcity of lobster further increases the price.