Tomalley is the green substance that serves as a lobster’s liver and pancreas and is a culinary delicacy. However, it can be dangerous due to high levels of toxins and the risk of paralytic shellfish poisoning. It should be avoided by children, pregnant women, and those with compromised immune systems.
Tomalley is the green substance that serves as a lobster’s liver and pancreas. Lobsters have an open circulatory system, which means that their body cavities are bathed in a continuous wash of blood and interstitial fluid, and the tomalley, along with other organs, floats in the body cavity. In addition to being vital to a lobster’s well-being, it’s also a culinary delicacy; in fact, the term usually refers specifically to the liver and pancreas of a lobster that has been cooked.
Anyone who has ever cut a whole lobster open has seen Tomalley; it’s the strange green substance that many people unwittingly throw away. In fact, it has a rich, complex flavor that some consumers find highly enjoyable. Some people eat it straight or use it as a spread for crackers and bread. It can also be blended into sauces and soups to enhance flavour, with most cooks sieving the tomalley to break it up, distributing the flavor and smoothing the texture.
Tomalley is also sometimes called “lobster paste,” although consumers should be careful when purchasing regular lobster paste in the store because a variety of lobster products are labeled with this term. Some recipes may specifically call for lobster paste or tomalley, usually when the recipe already calls for a whole lobster, so it is assumed that the cook will be able to extract the substance.
While Tomalley is a delicacy, it can unfortunately be dangerous. The liver is designed to filter toxins and when it can’t filter and express them, it sequesters them. In lobsters, this means that tomalley can contain high levels of PCBs, lead and mercury, none of which are particularly good for human health. Additionally, lobsters may contain the toxin responsible for paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP). Cooking doesn’t deactivate this toxin, so people who eat this part of the lobster run the risk of becoming seriously ill.
In some cases, it may be advisable to avoid tomalley altogether; children, for example, probably shouldn’t be served because their bodies and brains are still developing and pregnant women are at increased risk of seafood-related health problems, as are people with compromised immune systems . People should never eat tomalley from a lobster harvested in a region experiencing a red tide, as these algae blooms contain the toxins that cause PSP.
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