Lobster

Joining New York Times-bestselling author Mark Kurlansky's groundbreaking, award-winning Cod and Salt—a new classic-in-the-making.

When Mark Kurlansky was seventeen, he took his first job as a commercial fisherman in the Atlantic on a forty-five-foot, wooden-hulled, two-man lobster boat, thus igniting a lifelong fascination and kinship with the mysterious creature. Since that defining experience, the lobster's role in cuisine and culture have changed dramatically, as it has throughout history. Once thought of as peasant food ("Lobster again?" some eighteenth century New Englanders are reported to have griped), the humble crustacean, a cornerstone of coastal cuisine and economies, is now considered a delicacy, an animal rights cause célèbre, and a scientific marvel.


In Lobster, Kurlansky examines the lobster and its biological, cultural, and culinary identities throughout history and around the world, including fiffteen historic recipes that bring to life eras and cultures devoted to capturing and cooking the crustacean.