When did Lobster Become Popular? The Strange History of Lobster

Once considered food only fit for prisoners, lobster only became a luxury food in the 20th century.

This advertisement for canned lobster from the 1890s pleaded with buyers to “try them.” Why was it so hard to sell lobster? Before they were a luxury item, few people wanted to buy lobster.

Picture servants dining on lobster every day. But the servants weren’t happy about it — in fact, they demanded a limit on their lobster dinners. Now picture a grocery store where lobster cost a fraction of the price of beans.

If it’s hard to imagine, you’re not alone. Today, fans of the crustacean pay upwards of $50 a pound for fresh lobster. But in the past, well-off Americans looked down on lobster as a poor man’s meal.

When did lobster become popular? And how did lobster go from a food only fit for prisoners to a luxury item? The strange history of lobster isn’t what you think.

The History of Lobster

Indigenous people on the North American coast regularly ate lobster. When the Wampanoag shared a meal with the Pilgrims in 1621 — the first Thanksgiving — lobster sat on the table.

Lobster were so plentiful that they were considered common food, not a luxury item. The Wampanoag used lobster meat as bait to catch other fish.

When Captain John Smith sailed to New England in 1614, he marveled, “You shall scarce find any bay, shallow shore, or cove of sand, where you may not take many clams, or lobsters, or both at your pleasure, and in many places load your boat if you please.”

It wasn’t uncommon to find 20-pound lobster strolling the beaches of New England. And their abundance made lobsters commonplace.

And these lobster were not like today’s varieties. Unlike Europe, where centuries of plucking shellfish from the shore had left the beaches bare, North America had a bounty of seafood. Catching lobsters was easy when 20-pound crustaceans walked along the beach at low tide.

Waves tossed enormous piles of lobsters onto the beach, and it wasn’t uncommon to find lobsters that stretched a foot long or more.

European settlers were shocked by the size of North American lobsters, but they were so easy to catch that diners looked down on the crustaceans.

Mussel beds, oyster reefs, and clam beds also covered the shores. One colonist wrote that the oysters were so large — some a foot long — that it had to be cut into pieces to eat.

But colonists much preferred dining on cod or eels to lobster. Catching lobster required no skill. As a result, they were known as the “poor man’s chicken.” Instead of eating lobsters, some even ground up their meat to use as fertilizer or fed lobster to their pigs.

Serving lobster was a sign of poverty. William Bradford, governor of Plymouth Plantation, apologized to new settlers that the only food they had to offer was “a lobster . . . without bread or anything else but a cup of fair water.”

Prisoners, Poverty, and Lobsters

An English colonist in the 1630s summed up the view of lobster in New England: “plenty makes them little esteemed and seldom eaten.” And as a result, only those with few choices ate lobster.

Who were the lobster eaters? Servants and prisoners dined lobster in colonial New England. One story claims that indentured servants revolted when their masters only fed them lobster every day. The servants demanded new contracts guaranteeing they would not have to eat lobster more than three days a week.

The low position of lobsters continued for centuries. In 1876, John J. Rowan wrote, “Lobster shells about a house are looked upon as signs of poverty and degradation.”

Lobster were strange, unfamiliar outside of New England. They crawled along the bottom of the sea, like a marine cockroach. They brought to mind insects and bugs — the very name for lobster comes from the Old English word for spider. And no one was excited to sit down and eat spider meat.

The word “lobster” was one reason English-speakers weren’t eager to eat their meat — it comes from the word for spider. Brown University

Lobster remained a bargain meat well into the 20th century. Canning made lobster meat more accessible, but prices were still cheap. By the late 19th century, stores sold a can of Boston baked beans for 53 cents a pound. Canned lobster clocked in at 11 cents a pound.

Prisons stocked lobster to feed inmates, since it was such an inexpensive meat. Not surprisingly, many Americans refused to eat the food associated with the poor and prisoners. Instead, they fed the crustacean to their pets.

When did lobster become popular?

So how did lobster become a luxury food?

The change started with scarcity. Maine’s lobster canneries tossed out 5-pound lobster in the 19th century, declaring them not worth the work. Lobster was abundant and inexpensive — until the 20-pound lobsters vanished. Factories canned so many lobster that they were forced to move to smaller shellfish.

Canning brought lobster to a wider audience. And that transformed the history of lobster. Nova Scotia Archives

New technologies also changed the fate of lobsters. Canning meant the cheap meat could be shipped farther. And railways needed something to feed their passengers. America’s railroads stocked up on lobster since it cost so little. But passengers actually enjoyed the food — they had no idea the crustacean was considered trash food in New England.

Chefs began to prepare lobster in new ways. Rather than killing a lobster and then cooking it, they cooked the shellfish live. Restaurants began stocking lobster in their salad bars next to cottage cheese. And in the 1920s, a Connecticut seafood shack introduced the lobster roll, which swept the coast.

Demand slowly crept up for lobster. At the exact same time, the dwindling population of crustaceans increased prices. Lobster prices peaked in the 1920s before the Great Depression destroyed the market for the now-luxurious crustacean. Prices tumbled so much that the military bought up canned lobster to send to troops fighting in Europe.

Once lobsters no longer piled high on New England beaches, spotting the crustacean became a photo-worthy moment, as in this 1946 Greyhound advertisement.

As World War II rations cut into American diets, lobsters faced no limits. Even though lobsters were still seen as a poor man’s meat in Maine, families in other states gained a taste for lobster. And stronger transportation networks meant that lobster fans shipped live crustaceans across the country.

In the boom years after the war, lobster once again became a luxury item, a status it has not lost. But much like the overharvesting of whales and cod in the Atlantic, an animal once abundant in the sea was changed forever by human fishing practices. As the population of cold water Atlantic lobsters declined, Americans turned to warm water lobster from Florida and the Caribbean.

By the mid-20th century, lobster had become a classy, black tie food — drastically different from its reputation as a trash food.

Lobsters, whales, and cod today are not the same creatures they were before large-scale commercial fishing. The ocean may seem endless, but its marine residents are not. And sustainable harvesting practices do more than help crustaceans and cetaceans. They also protect the ocean as a food source for future generations.

For more true stories of the ocean and its history, check out The Ocean Blue: A History of Maritime Trade, Naval Warfare, and Exploration, available in ebook, paperback, or audiobook and free with Kindle Unlimited.

Bruce Wilson Jr. is the author of nine books on history. Visit Bruce Wilson’s website to learn more.