Name: Why Lobster Is So Expensive | So Expensive
Uploaded: 2019-07-24T01:45:35.000Z
Duration: 7 min 1 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Narrator: It's no secret that lobsters are pricey.

And a standard lobster dinner in a restaurant

Lobsters are considered a gourmet dish today,

but there was a time when they were known

So when did lobsters become such a delicacy?

but we're interested in the recognizable,

clawed lobsters you might see on the menu:

better known as American and European lobster.

We went to Ed's Lobster Bar in New York City

to speak to someone who has a lot of experience

buying, preparing, and cooking the crustacean.

Ed McFarland: So, one of the hardest things about working

lobster is, truthfully, it's the price range of lobster,

and it fluctuates greatly and from year to year,

And the yield when you clean a lobster is very low.

So you could buy a pound-and-a-half lobster,

I think this is what most people don't understand,

So there's not much yield that comes out of the lobster.

So when you're cleaning the lobster yourself

lobster so expensive, we need to take a look

Lobster's history varies across the world,

but, for a long time, it was a source of food

became much more popular in northern Europe

as boats more suited to deep-sea fishing became available.

for certain religious holidays, the church

also increased the demand for seafood, including lobster.

Across Europe, lobsters became associated

And they were often featured in paintings to show wealth.

But the value of lobster remained low in North America.

Native Americans used lobsters as fishing bait

and crop fertilizer, a practice that European

During the 1600s, American lobsters were dirt-cheap

Lobster became known as the "poor man's protein"

That reputation in the US didn't turn around

until the advent of railway transportation in the mid-1800s.

across the country, and passengers soon became fans

For a better taste, chefs began cooking lobster alive,

Unlike many other foods, lobster wasn't rationed

in the United States during World War II,

many more people to discover this delicacy.

reduced the stocks of lobsters and drove up the price,

and lobster became a gourmet dish often associated

Even when the supply of these crustaceans is high,

the price doesn't drop, due to the logistics involved.

Successfully catching lobsters is no easy task.

They're caught using traps, which have to

all be baited and dropped to the ocean floor.

Even if the traps are full when the lobstermen return,

they might have to throw a lot back due to regulations.

The crustaceans are put back if they're too big,

too small, or if they're female lobsters carrying eggs.

The ones that make the cut have their claws bound

and are placed on ice before being taken back to shore.

They're then kept in saltwater tanks and shipped live.

as well as get enough oxygen to survive the journey,

all of which increases the cost to distribute them.

A commercial lobster farm could help reduce costs,

but it's very difficult to successfully farm

And if the lobsters don't get enough food,

They're also highly susceptible to contagious diseases,

On top of all that, they grow very slowly.

It takes around seven years for a lobster

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Why Lobster Is So Expensive | So Expensive

susceptible

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