Last night, we decided to have lobster for dinner. Nope it’s not what you think, this was a rare occasion. We can afford to only have lobster once a year around Valentine’s Day from LobsterGram using the DiscoverCard Cashback Bonus points (expect a post about this next month). On New Year’s Eve, my mom was kind enough to give us a pair of cooked lobsters which she bought from a fundraiser for her Medical Association.
I prepared the table for dinner and decided to pick the bigger lobster and placed it on my plate while Elaine wasn’t looking. I cracked open my lobster and behold a nasty ammonia smell arose. It burned my nose. I don’t know what got into me, but I kept smelling it trying to find a hint that maybe it was a mistake. But no, every delicious part: the fat, the claws, even the tasty tail reeked of ammonia. Elaine was kind of enough to share her lobster with myself and Sammy. No shellfish for baby Sophie until three.
Apparently, lobsters deteriorate pretty fast when they die. If the tail is limp or smells like ammonia, then it means the lobster was dead too long before cooking. Anyone know why? I’m glad nature gave it a pungent smell as a warning to not eat bad food. If it didn’t smell that bad, I would have honestly eaten it.
Remember folks, never eat lobster or any shellfish that smells like ammonia. Heck, don’t eat anything that smells like cleaning fluid.
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Haha, Marlo! That’s what you get for trying to sneak the bigger lobster!
I think it’s no shellfish until 18 months and no nuts until age 3 for baby Sophie. Gotta double check with the pediatrician on that one.
mmmm…….ammonia
but what if we DID eat it?
If you would have ate that lobster, then you would have most probably contracted some type of food poisioning… Nausea, vomiting, diariah, possibly worse symptoms as well… The severity of the food poisioning usually depends on the size of the person as well as the strength of their immune system and how much bad food was ingested… With that said, if you are ever in doubt about any type of food, you are better off throwing it out, some food poisioning can cause paralisis and even memeory loss and respritory failure… (I have been in the foodservice industry for over 10 years)…
I just steamed some tails and immediately smelled a chemical smell, I googled it and found this page, and did not eat one piece of it. I will be emailing the grocery store I got them from. This makes me mad! On top of being “bad” they were marked $6.99 per tail and I was charged $9.99. I hope my buddy doesnt get sick, he ate his.
7:30pm New Year’s eve and preparing my lobster and what do you think made me stumble accross this page? This sucks….found numerous sights ringing the same bell. Where the hell am I supposed to get replacement dinner now??
I just found your page and thank God I did. I ordered twin stuffed lobsters and after eating just one claw, I tasted and smelled ammonia. The waiter quickly removed it from my tableafter explaining my experience. I will never doubt my instincts again and I’m happy that you confirmed my suspicions that the lobster was bad.
Make sure you don’t confuse the “ammonia” smell with the fishy smell of overcooked lobster. I have overcooked live lobster, and it reeks. It is, however, safe to eat.
My girlfriend smelled ammonia in a lobster tail, unfortunately at the end of her meal,I’m grateful for the many helpful posts at this site.all I can say is that our bodies are very efficient & if it tells you to throw up, do so, it’s rejecting the food for a very good reason. With a bad economy, more restaurants are less willing to dispose of bad food.
I went to a Christmas dinner at a restaurant with some friends (we all are expats living in Asia so most of us don’t have family here to share the holidays with). The opening dishes were okay, but when the owner brought out the turkey, I honestly thought someone had left the bathroom door open (people usually throw their toilet paper away instead of flushing it). The underside of the meat looked like tan curdled milk. I took a bite of the turkey and nearly gagged when I realized that it wasn’t the bathroom that smelled like that. I know for sure, because I had to run in there a few times during the meal from the nausea that overtook me and the bathroom actually smelled nice – certainly much nicer than our entree. Everyone at the table kept talking about how good it was and taking seconds and thirds. Now after seeing this website I know that it wasn’t just my imagination. There was something fishy about that turkey.
From Costco, I purchased 8 frozen lobster tails (they were individually frozen and vacuum sealed, then packed in one large box) on 20 Dec. The product label said they were from Brazil. The price was $84.95US.
The tails remained frozen and then on 24 Dec we cooked the frozen tails in boiling water. When they were finished cooking, the tails reeked of ammonia. This was very alarming and disappointing! Since it was late Christmas Eve, we had no quick run to the store to provide other proteins for our guests. We gambled and ate it. Thank GOD we did not get sick, especially after reading some very scary posts online.
I reported the issue to Costco and hope they’ll keep note for future product. AND I think we’ll go back to prime rib for next Christmas!
I bought mine from Costco as well on Approx. 1-4-13. What a great Valentines Day Meal!