Wayne Gisslen

Characteristics

Appears in
Professional Cooking: 10th Edition
Professional Cooking

By Wayne Gisslen

Published 2025

  • About
  1. Rock lobsters are also known as spiny lobsters or langoustes. They are warm-water relatives of northern lobsters but have no claws. Only the tails are marketed, sold as lobster tails.
  2. The flesh of the rock lobster tail is similar to that of the northern or Maine lobster, but it is drier and coarser, with less flavor.
  3. Rock lobster tails weigh 2 to 12 oz (60 to 340 g).
  4. Langoustines, or langostinos, are smaller relatives of the rock lobster. These small shellfish are often marketed as rock shrimp. When out of the shell, they look like shrimp, but their flavor is milder and sweeter than shrimp. Scampi (plural form of scampo) refers not to shrimp but to a variety of langoustine from Italian waters. The name scampi is often used, incorrectly, for large shrimp broiled with butter and garlic.