why does a lobster turn red when it is cooked?

Answer 1

All the pigments that make up a lobsters shell are destroyed by heat except the red pigment. This is why lobsters turn red when they are cooked.

More at: http://www.parl.ns.ca/lobster/faq.htm

Answer 2

The same reason why your skin turns red if it comes into contact with really hot water.

Answer 3

Wouldn't you after being cokked??

Answer 4

HOT=RED

Answer 5

LOBSTER BASICS
Lobsters are invertebrates, members of the Class Crustacea of the Phylum Arthropoda. Lobsters, along with other organisms without backbones (such as crab, shrimp, crayfish, water fleas, copepods, barnacles, and wood lice), are commonly called crustaceans (from a Latin word meaning hard shell).


The lobster's body has 19 parts, each covered by a section of its hard shell. The shell is thin and soft where the parts join, so the lobster can bend its body and move about.


Lobsters breathe through gills located beneath the shell on both sides of its thorax (center part).


Lobsters have two pairs of antennae on their head. Their eyes are compound eyes, consisting of hundreds of lenses joined together on the ends of a pair of slender, jointed organs called "stalks." They keep their antennae and eye stalks moving constantly to search for food and to watch for enemies.


It is unlikely that the lobster's nervous system is sophisticated enough to sense pain as we know it. Like all arthropods, the nervous system of a lobster is very primitive, containing far fewer nerve cells than human nervous systems. The nerve cells are grouped in clusters called ganglia. A lobster has no cerebral cortex, the area of the human brain that gives the perception of pain.


Lobsters are cannibalistic. Very territorial, when they encounter one another, they become aggressive and fight, using their claws as weapons, until one backs away.


Lobster blood usually has very little color, although when exposed to air it turns pinkish or red. When cooked, however, it becomes white and "sweats" out of the meat. It is the white substance that you find along the inside of the shell when you crack it open.


A male lobster is called a cock and a female a hen or chicken (when it weighs about one pound). A one-clawed lobster is called a cull. If it has no claws, it's called a pistol.


If a lobster loses a claw or an eye, it is usually able to grow another, although the new one is usually smaller. One of the most extraordinary abilities that lobsters possess is called reflex amputation. The lobster will throw or release an appendage when stimulated by shock, fear or injury. It will later regenerate this part.


All lobsters do not have the heavy ("crusher") claw on the same side. Those having it on the right are considered "right-handed," and the others are "left-handed."


The 2004 Maine lobster harvest landed 63.2 million pounds, a 20 percent increase over the previous record set in 2002, according to the Maine Department of Marine Resources. The value of the 2004 catch was a record $253.5 million.


The largest lobster ever caught in Maine measured 36 in. from nose to tail. The largest ever caught weighed 42 pounds, seven ounces.



COLOR
In their native North Atlantic Ocean, the color of live lobsters varies somewhat, but in general they are a dark blue-green, with spots. There are also rare, yellow, red, and white ones. Except for the white ones, they all turn red when cooked. Why? Because the lobster's shell consists of many different color pigment chromatophores. When it is cooked, all the pigments are masked except for astaxanthin, which is the background red pigment.
A genetic defect occasionally produces the very rare "blue" lobster. The defect causes the production of an excessive amount of protein. The protein wraps around a small, red carotenoid molecule known as astaxanthin. The two push together, forming a blue complex known as crustacyanin which gives the lobster shell a blue color. About one in a million lobsters are blue. When cooked, it ends up looking like anyother lobster -- a baked orange color.
MOLTING OR SHEDDING
Lobsters grow by molting or shedding their shell. It takes a lobster four to seven years to grow to be one pound in weight and to become an adult. They molt, or shed their shells, about 25 times in those first years of life. An adult male lobster sheds its old shell and grows a new one twice a year and a female once, increasing about 1/2 in. and 1/3 pound each time. When molting, the lobster's body gives off a substance that softens the shell. Then, by expanding its muscles, the lobster splits the shell and steps out of it. This process takes approximately 15 minutes. The new shell, which had formed under the old one, is soft and gives the lobster no protection. It takes about eight weeks for the new shell to harden. After the old hard shell is discarded the lobster is sometimes called a “new-shell lobster” or a "shedder." In Maine, new-shell lobsters are usually harvested from July through October. No one has yet found a way to determine the exact age of a lobster because it sheds its shell so often.

EATING HABITS
Lobsters feed on the bottom of the ocean, usually in coastal areas. They "smell" their food by using four small antennae on the front of their heads and tiny sensing hairs that cover their bodies. The larger of the 2 claws on a Maine Lobster is called the "crusher claw" and has thick teeth to crush prey. The smaller is called the "tearing claw" and has sharp teeth to tear food apart. The teeth of a lobster are in its stomach. The stomach is located a very short distance from its mouth, and the food is actually chewed in the stomach between three grinding surfaces that look like molar teeth called the "gastric mill". Lobsters feed mostly on snails, mussels, clams, crabs, urchins, and small fish. Sometimes, larger lobsters will eat baby lobsters.
REPRODUCTION
Female lobsters usually lay eggs only once every two years. They carry their eggs attached to the curved underside of the tail. A lobster egg is the size of the head of a pin. A 1-pound female lobster usually lays between 5000 to 100,000 eggs at a time and carries them for about a year until they are ready to hatch. She then shakes them out of the shell, releasing them as larvae which she then attempts to consume. Only about 1/10 of one percent of those eggs will live past 6 weeks because the larvae rise to the surface where they drift and swim for about three to five weeks. During that time they are easy prey for sea birds, fish, and other enemies. Then, after their 4th molt, they sink to the bottom where they spend the rest of their lives. At this point in their development, the young crustaceans actually look like miniature lobsters. A lobster's normal life span is about 15 years.
A female lobster with a V-Notch in its tail has been found to be an egg-carrying female; she has been notched and returned to the sea to protect her eggs. It is illegal to keep and/or sell a V-Notched lobster.

GENDER
To determine the gender of a lobster, you have to look closely at the swimmerets, those small feathery appendages on the underside of the tail. The first pair of swimmerets closest to the body are hard and bony on a male, and soft and feathery like the rest of the swimmerets, on a female. Only the female has a small rectangular shield between her second pair of walking legs. This is the sperm receptacle where she stores the sperm after mating until she lays her eggs. Note, too, that a female has a wider tail than a comparably-sized male because she needs the extra breadth to carry so many eggs.
MAINE LOBSTER IS ECO-FRIENDLY
Maine’s lobster harvesting practices are eco-friendly; learn more about the many environmentally friendly methods used by Maine lobster harvesters.
NUTRITION
For the health conscious, Maine Lobster is a dieter’s dream. It is low in fats, calories and cholesterol, lower than skinless white meat of chicken or turkey. The following table is supplied by the Maine Lobster Promotion Council:
Per 100-gram portion CALORIES CHOLESTEROL SATURATED FAT
Lobster 98 72 0.1
Beef
(top round) 207 90 2.0
Chicken
(light meat only) 173 85 1.3
Egg (1)
(50 gm) 77 212 1.6
Pork Loin 213 85 3.6
Turkey
(light meat only) 161 68 1.2


COOKING YOUR LOBSTER
Live lobsters should be kept cold until you're ready to cook them; do not place them in fresh water (as in the bath tub), because fresh water kills them.

To Boil: Fill a large kettle 1/4 full of water, allowing about 2 1/2 quarts of water for each lobster. If sea water is not available, add two tablespoons of salt for each quart of water. Bring the water to a boil. Put in the live lobsters one at a time and return to boil. Cover kettle and simmer about 10 minutes for 1 pound hard-shell lobsters. Add 3 minutes per pound for each additional pound.When the antennae pull out easily,the lobsters are done.

To Steam: Put about 2 inches of salted water in the bottom of a large kettle. Bring to a rolling boil and put in the live lobsters, one at a time. Cover kettle,return water to boil and begin timing. Allow 13 minutes for 1 pound hard-shell lobsters. Add 3 minutes per pound for each additional pound. When the antennae pull out easily,the lobsters are done.

Note: If the lobsters are new shell Maine Lobsters with soft shells ("shedders"), reduce boiling or steaming time by three minutes.

(By the way, lobsters do not have vocal cords and thus do not scream or vocalize when cooked. Any sound you hear could be that of air escaping from the lobster's body cavity as it expands from heating.)

The best way to store cooked lobster meat is in the shell, to prevent it from drying out.