It's unclear whether lobsters feel pain, but some chefs prefer to freeze live lobsters to sedate them before cooking — a topic Ina Garten addresses in her book, "Cook Like A Pro."
Garten either has the seafood shop kill the lobster for her before cooking it as soon as she can, or she uses a chef's knife to humanely dispatch live lobsters at home.
Garten advises quickly plunging the tip of a large, sharp chef's knife "exactly where the head and tail connect" to sever the lobster’s spinal cord and eradicate it in the process.
Some home cooks believe the most ethical approach to this method is actually to chill the lobster in the refrigerator first, rather than the freezer, for an hour beforehand.
To be quick, aim for the cross on the lobster's head and point the knife’s blade toward the tail, keeping the bands that bind the claws in place to avoid injury from its pincers.
