Watch Martha Share Her Expert Techniques for Cooking and Prepping Lobster

Whether you're serving up fresh, just-caught lobsters during your vacation in Maine or preparing an elevated seafood pasta recipe for a summer dinner party, it's important to know how to cook, crack, and eat this shellfish. Naturally, Martha has the perfect method, which she just shared on NBC's TODAY show.

During the segment, Martha taught the hosts how to cook, clean, and prepare lobsters, offering tips for how long to steam them (it's based on time and weight, she says), how to drain the liquid so you don't end up with a soggy finished meal (grab your kitchen shears!), and how to crack the claws. She also walked them through the steps for pulling out meat from the lobster's tail (and discarding the rest of the insides).

Best of all, she shared one of her favorite ways to use lobster meat: in a spicy lobster linguini that's simple, straightforward, and crowd-pleasing.

Martha's Tips for Perfect Lobster

Martha shared her best tips for steaming, preparing, and removing meat from lobsters.

How Long to Cook a Lobster

According to Martha, a lobster should be well-cooked—not under- or over-cooked. To get it right every time, pay attention to the shellfish's weight, she told hosts before they got cracking. You'll need to steam a 1-pound lobster for 13 minutes, a 1.5-pound lobster for 18 minutes, and so on, she says.

How to Prepare a Lobster for Eating

As soon as you remove the lobster from the hot water (handle it carefully!), snip off the tips of the cooked claws with kitchen shears and shake to drain, says Martha. This is how you'll avoid all that excess water on your plate when it's time to eat.

When the lobster is cool enough to handle, twist to remove the claws and tail from the body.

How to Remove Lobster Meat From the Tail and Claws

To get the lobster meat out of the tail, copy Martha's go-to trick: Flex the tail and insert the fork between the shell and the meat, with the back of the fork facing upward. "Twist and pull, and the whole tail should come right out," she says.

Use crackers on the widest part of the claws, and then remove the meat from the claw and knuckles with the fork. "I like the knuckle meat a lot," says Martha.

Martha's Favorite Lobster Pasta Recipe for Summer

To make Martha's spicy lobster linguini—perfect for weeknights and dinner parties alike—boil the lobsters in a pot filled with water and vodka (or white wine). Once you have the meat prepared, the rest of the dish comes together easily: just sauté garlic, red pepper, and tomatoes with fresh mint leaves, cook the pasta to al dente, and toss it in the sauce. "Stir in your lobster meat, and enjoy," she says. "It's a beautiful, beautiful dish."

Once you've mastered the dish, try Martha's other favorite lobster recipes, including savory Pasta With Marinated Tomatoes and Lobster and Lobster Ravioli With Lobster Vinaigrette.