Anyone have a great recipe for lobster rolls? There are a million similar recipes online but I value the input from everyone here. Bonus points if I can grill or smoke the lobster.
Boiled lobster is good, but grilled lobster is better and here is the only recipe you need to make it happen! Undiluted by boiling water, the lobster flavor truly shines through when cooked quickly over live fire, not to mention the added smoky depth. Lobster is split in half, grilled, and basted with butter.
but I was wondering if it's a waste for lobster meat that way to end up in a roll. Is it just the tail meat that goes into a roll?
Being a Midwesterner, I always an very minimalistic with lobster -- a little butter and nothing else so the lobster can shine through. My wife is from Connecticut. As it wasn't such a rare treat for her, she will do various things with it.
Are you talking about a hot sandwich or the cold, lobster-salad variety? For the hot sandwiches, I'm pretty much just lobster and butter, for reasons described above. I'm not a huge fan of the lobster salad sandwiches, though they are pretty good too.
As a midwest guy myself I guess I didn't realize there were two styles, since I'm mostly asking for my wife. I've never been a huge fan, but she loves them.
For either style, though - is it a combination of tail and claw meat? If it's going into a sandwich, is it a waste of effort to smoke/grill/sous vide the lobster?
I wouldn't have know about the two styles either before I went to visit my wife's family. She's the expert, so I'll try to remember to run it by her tonight, but I'd tend to agree that messing around with the lobster a lot would be a waste of effort. I think (don't know) that for the most part, lobster rolls are a way to use up odds and ends of lobster, like claws or small tails that can't be used for anything else.
Connecticut style is basically lobster, butter, and tarragon. Maine style is with the mayo, in the salad style... As a former CT resident... CT for the win.
Never made rolls but have done lobster on the grill. Drop one at a time into boiling water for just a couple of minutes to kill them. Split from head to tail. Place meat side up on grill dabbing with melted butter and fresh minced garlic. Doesn't take long until finished.
The process here on AR suggests pithing. I can't tell if there's any meaningful difference in the meat depending on the method of killing (humaneness aside). Your method sounds easy enough!
This is my go to as I find the cold lobster style gross. As my wife would freak at killing lobstahs, I make with all tail meat. It's not the same, but with SV, shellfish and butter, no one cares. The magic of the loose, wet protein of shellfish with SV is that the butter actually infuses it much better than other cooking methods.
Clearwater Seafood up here in Canada makes raw claws available. I’m unsure if they ship to the U.S. but I’d be surprised if there was not an American supplier as well.
As they are indeed available perhaps your local fishmonger could source them out for you.
The perfect Maine lobster roll is all the meat of a freshly picked 1-1 1/4 pound lobster (still warm) mixed with a little mayo (real stuff) in a buttered (real butter) and toasted, still warm hot dog roll (like Old Glory said). Period. Strict traditionalists will even accept a little chopped celery in the mix. This is the perfect lobster roll. However, the best lobster roll is whatever you like the most.
Doesn't take long until finished.
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