Concord author pulls the lid off lobsters’ tale

Book looks at cultural, scientific, and gastronomical history

August 18, 2011|By Nancy Shohet West, Globe Correspondent

Elisabeth Townsend, cooking a lobster at her home in Concord, says 20-pounders… (Mark Wilson/Globe Staff )

As a self-described “military brat’’ who spent her childhood at various locations throughout the country, Elisabeth Townsend recalls her family occasionally treating themselves to lobster for dinner - or what she then thought of as a lobster dinner.

Not until she traveled to New England on her honeymoon did she have her first taste of whole lobster in the shell. That was when she realized that the frozen, imported tails she had enjoyed in her childhood were a far cry from what native New Englanders call lobster.

Now, years after that first revelation, Townsend is something of a reigning expert on the crustaceans. Reaktion Books this spring published a 144-page work by the Concord-based food writer, “Lobster: A Global History,’’ that serves as a small but rich compendium of information about the cultural, ecological, and culinary legacy of one of New England’s most beloved gifts from the sea.

Research for the book took Townsend as far as Nova Scotia, where she visited biologist Susan Waddy in her lab at Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans to see some particularly exotic examples of lobsters. (Waddy is the researcher credited with proving that “jumbo’’ lobsters spawn with more frequency than smaller lobsters, despite the long-held belief by some lobstermen to the contrary.)

For the most part, though, the research for her contribution to the publisher’s Edible series of books was done the more traditional way: delving into gastronomic, scientific, and historical accounts from centuries past, touching cultures far and wide.

“One predominant surprise for me was learning about all the ways lobsters have been cooked and preserved over the years,’’ said Townsend. From the standpoint of today’s culinary standards, whereby the taste of lobster is savored, she found it strange to come across so many recipes in which the lobster meat is “almost unrecognizable.’’

Townsend can reel off numerous examples. “Lobster thermidor, covered in a heavy bechamel cream sauce. Lobster in mustard sauce. Lobster simmered in vinegar, cumin, and even beef stock.’’ The latter was because the cooks believed lobster wasn’t substantial enough by itself, Townsend explained, so they literally beefed it up.

But as difficult as it may be to imagine smothering the taste of lobster in mustard or beef stock, Townsend understands how the tradition came about. As many New Englanders already know, there was a time when lobster was so plentiful that it was considered fit only for poor fishermen and others who ate what they could scavenge.