Whole lobster - lessons learned

SpanishJoe · October 2008

Hey Y'all

Just thought I would post a sort-of mistake (again), so that others may learn as I have learned...

Lobster is crazy expensive here in Ottawa ($15/lb), and for our wedding anniverary, we decided to splurge. We nabbed two lobsters from our local LaPointe (~1.5 and 2lbs) and cooked the according to this recipe:

http://gonewengland.about.com/od/lobsterrecipes/ht/htgrilllobsters.htm

I know, I know, "Dwell in the shell", but look at that recipe - it's only for lobster TAILS, not whole lobster. The technique changes, because you're dealing with bodies and legs and claws and what have you. I did a search on the site and found really no advice on how to grill a WHOLE lobster.

Long story short, when I did it, the butter baste for the recipe flared up something awful while on the BGE, giving our $60 meal a gritty, sooty burnt butter flavour. My suggestion at this point is that some things are better steamed, and lobster is one of them, mostly because one has to pick up and crack open the things, and if there is any char or soot or butter baste (especially when cooking at 300-400, which is flame-up central), it gets everywhere. Not to discourage anybody to try it, but knowing this now, here are the things I would change:

-give the grill plenty of time to warm up - get the coals going, not so much the flames.
- Grill at medium-low temps (350 max, 400 was way too much and flamey)
- Easy on the butter, don't slather the basil butter on, basting is really unnecessary
- Two ~2lb lobsters, split, is capacity for a Large BGE
- Watch when taking the lobsters off the grill, the butter pools in the shell and flares up about 6 feet (!!)

All in all, it wasn't a horrible meal, but when you're competing with plain-old traditional steamed lobster, one musn't have detractors such as "smokey stink" :(

All best,

-SJ.

fishlessman · October 2008

im not a fan of smoking or grilling real lobstah, that recipe is for those southern bugs that have no claws. 4.99 a pound locally here by he way. cheap as ive seen it in a long time

Rascal · October 2008

Baked stuffed (if I have the time) or steamed are my choices. If steaming, I'll put the pot outdoors on the turkey roaster base. Time is about 14-15 minutes for a 1.5 pounder.

stike · October 2008

you could always grill the tails and steam the bodies/claws separately.

if they are bigger (say 2 pounds or better), there's a lot of meat in the body and the little legs. steam those parts and grill the tails. you might wanna kill the lobster before taking its tail off (though my father in law splits them live to do baked/stuffed). to kill them, stick the knife point straight down on the midline of the carapace thingy (the body shell) behind the eyes. then cut off the tail and do the "dwell in the shell" cook while steaming the rest.

frankly, though, we just steam them whole, splitting a 2-1/2 pounder rather than eating two small ones..

bubba tim · October 2008

If you want it, just ask. Very simple cook. Little Chef is from Boston and worked at "The Lobster Pound" for 6 years. Girl knows lobsta. She liked it so much, she married me!

crghc98 · October 2008

I remember my grandfather liked his lobster grilled. Cooked on one of those old 50's style stone BBQ's in the back yard. My dad used to cut them in half while alive starting at the head, and then they would be grilled open side down.....

Sundown · October 2008

Interesting. Better half and I are headed out to Eastport Maine for Columbus Day weekend where we will spend part of the day closing a restaurant in "downtown" for the season.

Fun. Lobstah cheap. Last year, at lunch, the lobstah salad we both had was not less than a pound (maybe a little bit more) of picked meat on a lettus leaf (their concessioin to fancy) all for $9.95!

The large size was $11.95 and was at least 2 pounds. I opted for that for dinner that night.

TomM24 · October 2008

I don't think I've egged any yet but as far as I'm concerned a grilled lobster tail is the best. 350 indirect cracked down the back with a little EVOO don't flip. A whole one would be a challenge. Most of my mistakes on the egg have been going direct when I would done it in the Weber with the coals on one side and the food on the other.

bubba tim · October 2008

Try this, Par boil the lobster for about 10 min (2# Bug)
Split the backs, place the bugs (lobster) on a mesquite smoking egg 225-250 ish. Crack side up for about another 10 minutes. Let rest for 5 minutes, dip in drawn butter or garlic drawn butter. Your done!
Then you can do this:

:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

jackodn · December 2014

I followed that recipe above that @SpanishJoe posted, and the meal came out great.

I had six 1.5/2 pound lobsters sent to me as a gift, and since I had never made lobster before, I figured I'd try them in the Egg. Par-steamed them for 7 or 10 minutes first, split them and vented the claws, and then indirect in the Egg for ten minutes (High heat - I was cooking some steaks at the same time). Everything came out cooked perfectly, tender and not overly smokey.

Sure it was messy to eat, but at least for me, eating a regular steamed or boiled whole lobster is fairly messy, too.

Tixunau · December 2014

Our family are big lobsters eaters on special occasion. (boiled, grilled and asian deep fried/saute) If grilling, par boiling or par steaming is the trick before chooping the lobster as previous folks suggested. Apply butter only near the end of the grilling to avoid flaring.

Here is a sample of when I deep fried and saute with ginger and spring onion.

Btw you should go buy Lobster at T&T SuperMarket by the airport. They are a little cheaper than at Lapointe or Pelican.

Cheers!

Tixunau · December 2014

Oh my.. just realized I replied to a very old thread. Sorry folks.

Happy New Year!!

Sea2Ski · December 2014

Wow, resurrecting a post from way back...

That picture looks glorious @tixunau

SGH · December 2014

Tixunau said:

Oh my.. just realized I replied to a very old thread. Sorry folks.

Happy New Year!!

No need to apologize my friend. There are many fine posts that are worthy of resurrection. Heck I like seeing them. Happy New Year to you as well.

MaskedMarvel · December 2014

The giveaway should have been $15/lb. Lobster is so cheap up there now, they're using it for wallpaper.

Canugghead · December 2014

Tixunau said:

Oh my.. just realized I replied to a very old thread. Sorry folks.

Happy New Year!!

Beautiful lobster you got there! Haha, I was going to say T&T didn't exist then! Happy New Year to you as well.

Whole lobster - lessons learned

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