Having been raised in New England, it was impossible for me to NOT be exposed to and fall in love with the taste of lobster.  For me, there was simply nothing like cracking open that just broiled 2 pound lobster, withdrawing the succulent meat and dipping it into freshly melted butter.   There’s something about that sweet and rich flavor intermingled with hints of sea salt that just melts in your mouth.

Lobster can be soft shelled or hard shelled.  The soft shelled version is prevalent earlier in summer season, mainly from July to October.  As these lobsters are fragile and don’t ship well, they’re consumed mostly in nearby New England.  Also, the soft shelled version tends to be a little too delicate to grill.  Some cooks feel that the quality of the meat in soft shells can be as good and tasty as hard shell whereas others claim that there is some dilution of flavor in the former.  While the soft shelled are more convenient to gather, being closer to shore, the hard shelled cousins need to be retrieved from further offshore, from North Carolina to Newfoundland.  Eventually, all of the lobsters become hard shelled from later in October through January.  It’s during this time period that these are very accessible and the pricing usually at its best.  From mid winter into the spring, lobsters that may have been penned up offshore to assure continued access to hungry consumers are made available.  As these lobsters are not living “in the wild,” and foraging as they usually would, some claim that their flavor is not quite as tasty.  Later in the spring, the quality of the meat picks up again, just prior to molting, when the lobster has the most meat.