New Englanders love lobster. It has been a part of the food culture of the area for up to 2,000 years, since the Penobscot and Wabanaki people first cooked lobster in the area.
Sometime between then and now, the thickly carapaced bottom dweller earned a reputation as the most sophisticated shellfish. It doesn’t look delicious — it looks like a prehistoric underwater cockroach. But when cooked properly, lobster meat tastes sweet and tender and perfectly rich. Add some drawn butter to the equation? Yum.
But many historians and bloggers have said over the years that the top-shelf crustacean used to be so common and lowly that it was only served to the poor, servants, and prisoners.
“Because there were so many of them, prisoners, apprentices, slaves, and children were often fed lobsters during the colonial era and after,” one account says.
Another says, “Lobsters were thought of as the ‘poor man’s chicken’ and were mostly used for fertilizer or to feed prisoners and slaves.”
Upon closer inspection, these (referenceless) reports sound a bit far-fetched. If you agree that lobster used to be easier to find and cheaper, it’s still hard to cook and takes a lot of work. Boston. com asked a few experts for their take on the local legend.
“Who the hell is going to pick all the meat off the lobster to make enough for a prison full of people?” asked Sandy Oliver, a food historian and writer from Isleboro, Maine.
Lobster is one of the most coveted and expensive seafood delicacies today, gracing the menus of fine dining restaurants and often served boiled or baked with butter. However, this crustacean was not always viewed as such a prized culinary treat. In fact, lobster was once considered lowly “prison food” and fed to the poor, apprentices, and slaves. How did this clawsome creature make such a dramatic rise from trash to treasure in culinary and cultural status? Let’s dive into the captivating history of the lobster.
The Humble Origins of Lobster as Prison Food
In early colonial America, lobster was so abundant along the Northeastern Atlantic coast that it was considered a “poor man’s protein.” Lobsters often washed ashore in piles after storms, providing an easy meal for settlers and Native Americans. They could be quickly boiled or baked to avoid spoilage.
As a result lobster was relegated to being a cheap, readily available food for lower classes apprentices, slaves, and prisoners. In fact, there are myths that some Colonial jails served lobster so frequently that inmates rioted and complained about cruel and unusual punishment!
Whether or not these exact stories are true, historical records confirm that the plentiful lobster was seen as a low-value food for the poor in the 1600-1700s. Those with means preferred beef, pork, and chicken as finer delicacies
Changing Perceptions Through War and Canning
Lobster’s association with the lower class started to shift in the mid-1800s with the advent of food canning and the Civil War. Canned lobster became an important food ration for Union soldiers, exposing men from various backgrounds across the country to eating lobster for the first time.
Even if they viewed it as chewable fuel, they developed a taste for it. Increased demand for canned and fresh lobster followed. As railroad infrastructure expanded, it became feasible to ship live lobsters from the New England coast to major cities. Lobster could now reach diners previously unfamiliar with the seafood.
Tourism and Dining Transform Lobster into a Delicacy
By the late 1800s, lobster had gained wider appeal as a tasty delicacy thanks to tourists flocking to New England coastal resorts and sampling local fare. Elegant hotels featured lobster dishes, eventually associating the crustacean with upscale dining.
Transporting fresh live lobsters instead of canned meat also led to much higher prices in inland markets. Soon lobster embodied luxury, indulgence, and gourmet eating for well-to-do diners. Serving lobster became a way to impress guests at lavish parties.
Lobster Today: Expensive and Controversial
In modern times, lobster has secured its status as a prestigious and desirable gourmet food, especially for special occasions. Lobster tails, claws, and whole lobsters command exorbitant prices at restaurants known for high-quality seafood. Some view it as the ultimate romantic food.
Yet with its rise in popularity, controversies have also emerged around lobster fishing practices and boiling lobsters alive. Animal welfare advocates view dropping live lobsters into boiling water as inhumane. There are also concerns about overfishing lobster populations.
Once synonymous with prison grub, lobster now conveys status, indulgence, and culinary distinction. The tasty claws that were once trash fed to apprentices now grace plates at society galas. Yet lobster’s future place in cuisine remains debated as ethical concerns rise. The delicacy’s history provides a compelling example of how foods can transform in cultural meaning over time.
Frequently Asked Questions About Lobster History
Here are answers to some common questions about how lobster went from trash to treasure in culinary lore:
Why exactly was lobster considered low class food originally?
Lobster was cheap, readily available protein for coastal settlers. Abundant supply and quick spoilage made it seem like a lower value food. It was filling and nutritious but not prestigious.
How did canning help change lobster’s reputation?
Canning allowed lobster to be kept longer and shipped far from northeast coasts. This expanded who could eat lobster beyond local settlers. Canned lobster rations in the Civil War also exposed new groups to the seafood.
What made fresh lobster seem like an upscale food later on?
Transporting live lobster on railroads made it expensive to serve inland. Tourists trying lobster dishes at coastal resorts and hotels associated it with vacation indulgence. Limited inland supply added to the sense of distinction.
Why is lobster so expensive in restaurants now?
Today’s high prices are driven by live transport, limited catches, seasonal availability, high demand globally, and prestige pricing at upscale eateries that position lobster as a luxury.
How do animal rights issues impact lobster today?
There are debates about whether boiling live lobsters is humane. Some think regulations should require stunning lobsters first to numb pain. There are also concerns about overfishing straining lobster populations.
In essence, the lobster transformed from abundant fish fodder to prestigious cultural symbol and culinary delicacy through shifts in supply, access, perception, and ethics over centuries. Its evolving status reveals much about the fluid nature of food and culture.
Was lobster always so popular?
In 1623, during a period of food scarcity in Plymouth Colony (in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts), the colonial governor William Bradford wrote an oft-cited letter complaining that the “best dish” the settlers could prepare was “a lobster or a piece of fish without bread [or] anything else but a cup of fair spring water.”
According to historians, this fact led them to believe that lobster was cheap food back then. They say, though, that Bradford’s comment “has overshadowed the real evaluation of lobster in the early days.” ”.
There are other accounts that are more balanced. For example, Edward Winslow, who wrote from Plymouth Colony to England in 1621, said, “Our Bay is full of Lobsters all the Summer.” ’” Stavely and Fitzgerald wrote. After a few years, Francis Higginson bragged in Salem, Massachusetts, that “the least Boy in the Plantation may both catch and eat what he will” of lobsters. ”.
He did say that he “was soon cloyed with them,” but that was only because “they were so great, fat, and luscious.” ”.
From the 18th century onward, lobster’s social caché only grew. Lobster meat began showing up in stews, in sauces, and to enhance the flavor of fish dishes. Potted lobster and lobster pie appeared in 19th-century recipe books.
“The amount of people wanting lobster was definitely going up in the 1800s,” Stavely and Fitzgerald wrote. This made lobster valuable for sale. By then, lobster could be shipped from Maine to Boston, New York, and other East Coast commercial centers. It arrived alive and could be sold and cooked fresh. “Even though this shellfish was still pretty cheap, it wasn’t looked down upon as poor man’s food,” they wrote.
Fast forward to the present day. Centuries of lobster hype have depleted the populations along New England’s coast. Climate change has compounded the problem, driving the remaining populations north in search of cooler temperatures. But lobster, whether boiled, baked, or served up on a roll, remains a regional staple with its very own mythology.
The stories we tell about our food, Oliver believes, reveal more about us than the food.
Oliver laughed. “The bottom line is that when something like salmon or lobster starts to get harder to find, stories start to come out about how stupid people were back then—they didn’t know what a great thing salmon or lobster was!” “It makes the people telling the story feel better about themselves, smarter, and more knowledgeable.” ”.
What did colonial prisoners eat?
Keith Stavely and Kathleen Fitzgerald have written a number of books and essays together about the history of American food. These include “America’s Founding Food: The Story of New England Cooking” (2015) and “Northern Hospitality: Cooking by the Book in New England.” ”.
While researching for these books, the husband and wife from Rhode Island came across the story of lobster being used as prison food, but they couldn’t find any historical evidence to back it up. In an email to Boston. com, they explained what they were — and weren’t — able to prove.
Stavely and Fitzgerald said that New England prisoners might have been fed lobster once in a while “if they were imprisoned near the coast where lobsters were plentiful.” This is because “lobsters were a valued but not a luxury food until the 20th century.” But lobster was never the prisoners’ steady diet. ”.
It was found that after the first European colonists came to New England in the 1600s, most prisoners were fed simple, cheap food like salt pork, baked beans, salt cod, brown bread, and maybe hardtack, which is a dense cracker that lasts a long time.
“These were the cheap, calorie-dense, easily preserved and easily prepared foods of the region,” Stavely and Fitzgerald wrote. “Cabbage was the most common vegetable, and potatoes would have been served by the 19th century. ”.
Lobster, on the other hand, was “difficult to transport (if they died en route they were not fit to eat), difficult to prepare (they needed big kettles, which is why many city shoppers brought them home already cooked), and there was the problem of getting rid of huge amounts of shells.” ”.
Oliver, the historian from Maine, did her own research and couldn’t find any records from the 17th or 18th centuries that said prisoners in New England ate lobster. And when the story did materialize in town histories later on, it wasn’t even initially about lobster.
“The punchline … is that the story was never told about lobster until the 20th century,” she explained. “The story about salmon in the 1800s was told with almost the same language, characters, setting, and everything else.” And it wasn’t true about salmon either!”.