Removing the meat from cooked lobster

You can find meat in most parts of the lobster, so be sure to pick it thoroughly.

• Twist off the legs at the base. Twist the legs from the claws.

• Hit the side of the lobster claw carefully but firmly with the heel of a sharp, heavy knife, keeping your fingers well away from the knife blade. When the blade is embedded in the claw, twist the knife until the claw cracks. (If this does not happen first time round, repeat the process, hitting the claw in a different place.)

• Wiggle the small pincer and carefully pull it away from the claw to reveal the meat. Remove the meat from the remaining claw in one piece.

• Use kitchen scissors to cut through the inside of the knuckle shell and ease out the meat.

• Fully extend the lobster body. Hold the tail, shell-side down, in a tea towel and squeeze the tail together to crack and loosen the tail shel. Ease the meat out in one piece.

• Use a rolling pin to squeeze meat from the thin legs as you would a tube of toothpaste.

The only part of the inside of the lobster that cannot be eaten is the stomach sack, which resembles a small plastic bag. The stomach sometimes extends down the back of the body of the lobster in a black line; you can snip this at one end and pull it away from the meat. Any green uncooked roe, pink cooked roe, or head meat is edible.