KENNEBUNK, Maine (AP) — When Maine's lobsters start shedding their shells, restaurant owner Steve Kingston goes to the docks with a message for lobstermen: bring 'em to me.
"They definitely have a much saltier, brinier taste," said Kingston, who runs a Kennebunk restaurant called The Clam Shack that goes through a half-ton of lobsters per day in the summer. "We're a softshell house."
Kingston is among a group of people in Maine's lifeblood seafood industry trying to make the coming season the summer of shedders. The Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative, a group funded by the state's lobster fishermen, dealers and processors, is launching a push to re-brand recently-molted lobsters as a regional treat that deserves more attention from chefs, restaurants and vacationing tourists.
Newly-molted lobsters, sometimes called "shedders" in New England, are crustaceans that have recently grown out of their old shells. Shedders tend to cost a little less than harder or "old shell" lobsters at restaurants and lobster pounds that sell both. The collaborative is rechristening shedders as "Maine new shell lobsters" and marketing them as a unique Maine treat — sweeter in flavor than hard shell lobsters, and easier to prepare because of their tender flesh.
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