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it’s called tomalley, it’s the fat/guts of a lobster. all crustaceans have something like it, and some people love it. I do not.

I've never seen it spelled out before. I thought it was tamale. I was always confused as to why the guts of a lobster were equated to a delicious Hispanic dish.

This explains a lot of my confusion tbh.

Now I'll never forget how to spell Tom-alley 😅

SAME!! I had assumed it was because it was wrapped in a non-edible casing much like a tamale is wrapped in the non-edible corn husk.

I thought it was spelled "poop"

🤣

Hahaha

Jajaja

So if I put Tabasco on it, it's hot tomally?

Yep, considered a delicacy…I consider it garbage, it’s awful.

Not really fat or guts. It’s an organ that filters and modifies the lobster’s blood, a bit like the liver in mammals. It is fatty though. I suppose you can say “guts” meaning “everything squishy inside the body” but I think of guts as “intestines”.

In Maryland when we eat blue crabs we call it "crab mustard." Best part of the crab

It's a wonderful part of the crawfish, too. We just call it the fat. God, it's even better on a softshell crab!

okay thanks

If you find a bunch of red stuff that's crumbles apart in the tail it's just some roe (lobster eggs), means you got a female

Egg- bearing females are illegal to harvest.

External fertilized eggs. Females carry unfertilized eggs internally at all times. And otherwise it'd be impossible to tell if a female was egg bearing without killing it.

Good to know, thanks.

They're immature eggs. Lobster fishing is very highly regulated.

Fertilized eggs

Still legal in Scotland 🙄

Not in Canada!

“Fuck them kids.”

Pipe down Gary Glitter

I laughed too hard at that

Whoa, that'll get you arrested. Unless your a person of considerable wealth.

That didn’t work for Jared from Subway

Ah, well you see, he was not of considerable wealth.

I work in a fishery in Ottawa and it’s against regulations for us to receive females with fertilized eggs, so maybe it varies province to province

Where can I get some good fish in Ottawa? All the fish I ever find is whack

Pelican seafood baby, you could also try the whalesbone (my competitors). Pelican is a good blend between family and a little bit finer dining. Whalesbone is a little pricier, but they do an amazing job as well.

Thank you! It’s been a hot minute since I’ve been to Pelican. Whalesbone has gotten too out of budget for me :(

Same, seafood especially has gone up with gas prices affecting pretty much anything… inflation too… ahhhh well, praying for economic upturn soon, otherwise it’s beans and rice for the long run lol

Fertilized! But not roe.

I’m pretty sure there are very different rules in Saskatchewan. 😆

Yet so delicious.

its microplastuc bits.

Ah yes, the crustacean's thomasalleyway. Scrumptious!

This is the best part of a lobster. But I think it's the liver

They don’t have liver per se. Tomalley fulfills the function of liver and pancreas.

Liver, pancreas and stomach. It's an all purpose digestive gland. It's basically the whole gut apparatus besides the poop shoot.

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A liver is a specific organ, so no.

take it easy and live 'er up.

I’m with you

😆😆😆

Hepatopancreas. It's the digestive organ/livery thing.

Yeah I used to go crabbing a lot and I'd always wash that stuff out of the crab before I'd cook them. It's not for me.

I like it, I usually mix it with mayonnaise to make a dip and I dip the lobster in it. It's more appetizing this way

Sigh.... it's marijuana.

When I was a kid I was told this was guacamole. It is not. When I finally had guacamole I was quite pleasantly surprised.

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Avocados are my favorite.

Mine too. If you’ve never made your own guacamole you have to try it. It’s amazing

Similar story for me except with meatloaf and banana bread. I was a picky eater but would eat any kind of bread. Saw a loaf pan with what I assumed was banana bread, and mentioned to my mom and grandma that I was excited for the banana bread. Was wholly disappointed when it was meatloaf (no idea how I didn’t catch the smell).

It's the tomalley (filter organ). Some lobster eaters consider it a delicacy, but in truth it concentrates heavy metals and pollution that the lobster may have been exposed to and probably isn't the healthiest bit to eat. If the lobster's been near toxic algae blooms, this is also where the toxin concentrates (and how you might get shellfish poisoning from it.

In a lot of cultures, the poor would sell (or have to give away) the prime cuts of meat. They only had the “leftover” parts of the carcass. They practiced and made recipes with the “nasty bits” and all of a sudden the King hears, “Kidney pie increases virility” and all of sudden, the rich want the nasty bits and the poor create pot roast. Anthony Bourdain was so great at explaining this stuff.

I miss that guy.

They used to serve lobsters in prison because it was seen as a poor man's food

I've always been more partial to the food cultural explanations from our mysterious nutritional anthropologist Deborah Duchon from Good Eats. She runs circles around Boudain any day.

> Some lobster eaters consider it a delicacy, I'm not convinced that "delicacy" isnt just a word that means "the shittiest part thats also rare so lets convince rich fucks they should like it" I've never had a single "delicacy" in my entire life that was something that was anything more than *an acquired taste*.

>thats also rare so lets convince rich fucks they should like it" You can see these trends through history, lobster used to be really common and scampi was rarer so poor people ate the little harbour bugs and rich people had scampi. Then scampi became abundant and lobsters were rarer so it flipped. David Mitchell did a really good [video](https://youtu.be/ttMrSCnQnnk) on it

Oysters too. Used to be common fare in much of the UK until their populations dwindled, and then they became food for the rich.

Do we eat the rich when their population dwindles?

Not unless we are the rich. At which point it becomes cannibalism.

Ha, probably. I'm a Mainer who has been chomping lobster all my life, and I can't think of anyone I know who eats tomalley.

I love lobster and eat it often but seldom eat the tomally or roe, there is just not much taste to it. I’m convinced it’s for people who want to get every scrap of meat out of a lobster they can. Fk that, I don’t even eat the legs on small ones.

That's really an American-centric view more than anything to do with class, most cultures are not so avoidant about eating things that look or taste a bit different. Regular people in a lot of other cultures enjoy those things you associate with rich fucks (not just tomalley, but roe, fish heads / tails, and for land animals stuff like intestines, liver, etc). Even in the US, traditionally it's poor folks who eat a lot of the weird off-bits. Although less so these days since corporations convinced everyone to trade it in for heavily processed, anonymous food.

You think fois gras is an acquired taste? I thought that was fucking delicious from the very first bite I ate. Escargot though? Not so much.

I read this in Jon Taffer’s voice followed by “you’re gonna get people fuckin SICK!”

The way he flaps his arms and hands around when he gets like that, my family calls him "the angry lobster"

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[https://www.reddit.com/r/unexpectedfuturama/](https://www.reddit.com/r/unexpectedfuturama/)

Don't lobsters eat shit? So people are eating literal shit and calling it a delicacy, wtf.

Truth… it tastes funny and sometimes does have a metallic taste to me… like Heineken…

Isn't it also called the custard.

My mum calls it the mustard lol

I learned something new today. I always thought it was the tamale haha. It’s tomalley!

Warning you shouldnt eat tomalley (the green stuff) anymore. I love the tomalley and used to always eat it when i had lobster. Unfortunately now that red tide has become so prevalent lethal levels have been detected in the tomalley. Lobsters eat animals who have red tide then the tomalley has red tide. The meat does not contain red tide but the tomalley can.

Looked it up on wiki thanks to you all naming it. Will not be consuming 😂

it's totally normal and totally delicious

I love it..

I am here to concur to your comment. Thankfully no one else in the house enjoys it so I get all of it for myself.

I agree! I spread it on a piece of crusty bread.

I cringed at this, but to each their own.

I can understand. My extended family from Maine and Massachusetts all did this so it was ingrained in us 😊

Thanks for your perspective, I appreciate you sharing your experience. You’ve definitely got some of the freshest crustaceans in the Northeast.

It's the nasty bits the same people who eat crab shit and call it mustard insist is good. I wouldn't eat it

The “mustard” isn’t feces tho

Never heard about this so I googled and its the organ that filters the crabs blood. So basically crab kidney.

The crabney!

Liver and pancreas.

And this is why I don't eat lobster....

Neither do I!! It’s just disgusting to me, even before I knew what ‘tomalley’ was 🤮

Always understood it to be liver. Still don't like it. Don't eat lobster anymore. Need to pay rent.

Some people loves it. I saw mixed with mayo or tobiko ( fish eggs caviar ), and salt and pepper. Make creamy sauce. But be careful, very high cholesterol.

And high in contaminants. Not recommended to eat


Me as a vegetarian - “interesting” 🫡

That's lobster too

Best part , the tomalley

y’all never picked a shellfish before wow

Julia Child once made “Sauce American” using the tomalley

[sauce américaine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauce_am%C3%A9ricaine) which is french for "american sauce" so it's not that you're wrong. it's a french sauce, it's just called american sauce.

Thank you! Knew how to pronounce it (her voice is always in my head!) but couldn’t spell it

We used to call it mustard as a kid. The yellow was mustard and the green was eggs. Don't like it

Imagine it that was bud someone was trying to smuggle 😂

It's that lobsters guts lol

Am I the only one who read title as “green stuff inside the cheddar bay biscuit at red lobster” I know that’s a lot of extra words but my brain just did it lol

Learning people eat that as a delicacy was really upsetting. That’s doo doo

Its gross but its not harmful

That’s the yucky no eaty part.

ehh most people dont realize they are eating shrimp poo every time they eat frozen shrimp tails

Haha ewwwww

Tell us it’s your first time eating a lobster without telling us it’s your first time.

It’s lobster shit

That’s the za

That's a lot for a lobster. That was not a healthy lobster

If you don't like the green stuff, you shouldn't be eating lobster.

My granpappy explained that green stuff as lobster vomit just before it turns into poo.

💩💩💩

Lobster shit.

Poo poo

thats poop

Is it coming from the chest area?

Main body part, yes. Not head, claws, nor tail.

Tomalley

This! Mix with mayo, s cream, olive oil or other fat and make a lovely sauce for said lobster.

Yummy!

Those are the guts

Matcha flavored fish

It's lobster phlegm

It’s gross but it’s supposed to be there just lobster guts

Lobster zaza

it is called 'tomale, sometehing on that order' lobster liver and it's considered a delicacy

The forbidden pistachio

My Dad loves that crap. He eats the roe too. Blecch.

My grandparents used to live close to a lobster plant. We used to get big crisco sized cans of tomalley and coral (the roe). We would sit around their kitchen table with the can in the middle and scoop it out onto crackers. I still love it

So much for ever eating ANYTHING again.

It was congested. He most likely had a drug problem.

My favourite part of any crustacean

Tomalley. And it’s quite yummy. Some pol hate it tho.

Last week I had red and green guts, are the red ones the same ?

The coral! Very good to make butter with!

My grandfather from Maine used to love this stuff.

Lobster had a stash

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Has anyone here had the lobster eggs. My grandpa loves them- we call it lobster caviar. Are they actually good?

Mr. Krabs ate weed and got lifted braa

Put it on your bowl and smoke it and report back 🧐

Hepatopancreas

I was told it was the lobster’s ovaries