How do you split a cooked lobster in half?

Turn the lobster on its back, then cut down the centre with firm pressure to cut through the shell, opening it into two neat halves.

Which parts of a lobster do you remove?

Take out the gills and the small stomach sac near the head, and the dark intestinal tract running along the tail. Keep all the tail and claw meat.

How do you get the meat out of the claws?

Crack the claws with a cracker, then use a lobster pick to draw the meat out in one piece.

Should I prepare lobster for a salad or a recipe?

For a platter or salad, leave it in tidy halves. For a recipe, pick all the tail, claw and leg meat out into a bowl ready to use.

What tools help with a cooked lobster?

A sharp knife, a lobster or crab cracker and a lobster pick make it easy — all available in our cook shop.

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Seafood guide3 min readUpdated 26 May 2026

By the Down The Cove editorial team

Prepare a Cooked Lobster

Once your lobster is cooked and cooled, preparing it is simple and rather satisfying. Whether you want elegant halves for a platter or all the meat picked out for a recipe, here is how to split a lobster cleanly, remove the few inedible bits, and get every last piece of that sweet tail and claw meat.

Read the guide

Buying, storing & preparing seafood

Seafood guide

Seafood notes

A simple route through buying, storing, cooking and serving seafood at home without making the page feel busy.

Prepare a Cooked Lobster is here to make seafood feel easier at home: what to buy, how to handle it, and how to cook it with confidence.

Choose wellWhat to look for before it reaches the kitchen.

Start with seafood that looks and smells fresh, then keep the plan simple. Good fish, shellfish and coastal ingredients do not need a complicated route to the plate.

Keep it freshStorage, freshness and calm food handling.

Keep seafood chilled, unpack it when you get home, and cook it while it is at its best. A calm kitchen starts with good storage.

Cook simplySimple heat, short timings and clean flavours.

Use gentle heat, short timings and a little patience. Most seafood rewards simple cooking more than heavy sauces or overworked methods.

Serve with confidenceFinishing touches that keep seafood inviting.

Serve seafood with clean flavours, enough time to rest, and a little confidence. Lemon, herbs, butter, good bread or a simple salad often do the job beautifully.

The full guide

Read straight through, or use the seafood notes above to keep buying, cooking and serving simple.

How to Prepare a Cooked Lobster

Kitchen kit for this guide

Seafood prep and kitchen kit chosen to make the guide easier to use.

Curated for this guide

MasterClass mirror-polished stainless steel lobster cracker, 17cm, with claw-shaped arms and two serrated cracking holes

MasterClass Crab & Lobster Cracker, Polished 17cm£15.99Save £1.00See the solution

A guide to cleaning & preparing a lobster for a lobster salad and removing lobster meat for a recipe including how to use a lobster pick.

Whether you have caught or bought a live lobster and cooked it or whether you have bought a pre-cooked lobster, the next stage is to prepare it for eating.

Important: If your lobster is still alive, please follow these instructions to cook it before following the guidance on this page to prepare it for eating:

How to Cook a Live Lobster

Once your lobster is cooked, using tools like those below, you can either prepare it so that you end up with half lobsters to serve with salad or you can remove all of the meat to use for a recipe.

Shellfish tool roll in white canvas with oyster knife, crackers, hammer and picks, beside a rolled-up roll

Cooked brown crab and lobster beside a canvas tool wallet with crab cracker and picks

Canvas shellfish tool roll unrolled showing pockets of cracking, cutting and picking tools

Halved cooked lobster and crab claw on plates with lemon, beside a Down The Cove cloth and crab cracker

Seafood Tools

Seafood tools specially designed to get in to the awkward areas of the lobster make preparing and eating shellfish a lot easier. We have a full range of seafood utensils in our cook shop including seafood forks, crab and lobster crackers and shellfish tools kits.

How to prepare a lobster for a salad or platter

It is necessary to cut the lobster in half first - this is easier if you turn the lobster on its back first. Cut down the centre of the lobster applying quite a lot of pressure in order to cut the shell.

You should then remove the bits of the lobster that are not edible, for example the gills, before cleaning the lobster ready to serve. Full instructions on how to clean and prepare a lobster for a salad or platter are detailed in the video.

How to remove the meat from a lobster for a recipe

If you wish to carry on and remove the lobster meat from the shell so that it can be used in a recipe then follow the instructions in this video. These are instructions on how to pick the meat out of a lobster shell and assume that you have viewed the above video first.

Common questions

How do you split a cooked lobster in half?: Turn the lobster on its back, then cut down the centre with firm pressure to cut through the shell, opening it into two neat halves.
Which parts of a lobster do you remove?: Take out the gills and the small stomach sac near the head, and the dark intestinal tract running along the tail. Keep all the tail and claw meat.
How do you get the meat out of the claws?: Crack the claws with a cracker, then use a lobster pick to draw the meat out in one piece.
Should I prepare lobster for a salad or a recipe?: For a platter or salad, leave it in tidy halves. For a recipe, pick all the tail, claw and leg meat out into a bowl ready to use.
What tools help with a cooked lobster?: A sharp knife, a lobster or crab cracker and a lobster pick make it easy — all available in our cook shop.

Two ways to make a day of it

Fresh air, good food and a bit of headspace. Here are two places to start.

Small Cornish harbour with fishing boats moored in clear water

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Ideas for preparing, cooking and enjoying seafood.

Editorial illustrations; explore the guides for place and recipe details.

A real cooked crab ready to prepare with shellfish tools

Guide, gear and practical advice

Prepare crab and lobster with confidence

Follow the step-by-step preparation guide, then use a proper cracker, pick and seafood shears to reach the meat cleanly without turning supper into a wrestling match.

By the Down The Cove editorial team

Read the crab preparation guide Shop crab and lobster tools

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Seafood Tools & Utensils