Although it was once considered a poor man's food due to the fact that it was so plentiful, today, a food often reserved for special occasions due to its high price tag. Those who have eaten lobster have experienced the delight of eating sweet, rich, yet delicate shellfish meat, but not all of them have stumbled upon the tomalley. Tomalley is a green, pasty substance that is found in the body cavity of a lobster.
It looks a little like pesto sauce, wasabi, or guacamole, but no, your lobster hasn't been injected with a condiment. The tomalley is actually the crustacean's hepatopancreas, which functions as both the pancreas and liver. While it's certainly part of the digestive tract, it doesn't contain the creature's waste, like the that you should remove.
The hepatopancreas filters out toxins and pollutants that the lobster has ingested or absorbed from its food and surrounding environment. Despite this, some people consider the tomalley a special indulgence and gladly gobble it up. However, there are some reasons you might be better off leaving the green stuff on your plate.
To eat or not to eat? You're most likely to come across tomalley if you're eating a whole, intact lobster. When lobster meat has been cooked and separated for you (like in a lobster roll, on salads, or in pastas), it typically doesn't have the tomalley. If you're not expecting it, it may catch you off guard, leading you to scrape it out.
But if you see others happily gobbling up this mystery goo, it's bec.