First item is get some fresh lobsters.I live 3 miles from where the lobster fleet in Saugus Ma calls home.Off the boat they get around $4 a lb. for a 1 1/4-1 3/4lb and if you want the selects (over 2lbs) the price goes up.I steam them in a big pot with an 1" of water for 8-10 minutes and then take the meat out of the shell-tail-claws--knuckles.I like a little mayo mixed in with the meat and a little bit of lettuce.Toast the bun in a pan with a little butter-assemble the roll and you're good to go.---Bon appetit---charliezap
The landing where the lobstermen come in

Lobster boats at anchor.

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Steamed lobster

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Enough lobster meat for 2

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The end result.

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[daacon]

omg I just booked a flight.

[bluestringer]

Nice shots Charlie. That lobster roll looks yummy.

[charliezap]

omg I just booked a flight.

I will feed you lobster and all other indigenous sea food til you get sick Dave.--charliezap

[magkelly]

Mayonaise and lettuce? Eh, no thanks. I'm a lobster purist. If I'm going there I want nothing but a little drawn garlic butter on mine. When I was a kid and we did vacations up in Maine they served them both ways, with mayo and other crap like that, and sans mayo et all, hot on the bun with butter. I never could stand the mayo version particularly when there is celery involved...

[Sailor]

Great job on giving us a short course in lobsterology. Cool shots, Capn.

Jer

[charliezap]

Nice shots Charlie. That lobster roll looks yummy.

The part of this that's a bummer Dennis is the prep work time far exceeds the gobbling time.--charliezap

[Cee Cee]

looks sensational Charlie, "$4 a lb" oh how I wish, one of my (and Mrs CC's) favorite dishes, unfortunately the price of our local lobster/crayfish has been driven through the roof by the export prices they get. ..... $80- a Kg. that's just not right. - I just read something about China imposing some sort of ban on Australian Lobster causing prices to plummet to $30 Kg. I'm going to check that out for sure!!!
cheers.

[Bob Harris]

out on the west coast we pay so much for just a small lobster, it almost seems sinful to put it in sandwich form, but at that price I would love to try one.

[charliezap]

Mayonaise and lettuce? Eh, no thanks. I'm a lobster purist. If I'm going there I want nothing but a little drawn garlic butter on mine. When I was a kid and we did vacations up in Maine they served them both ways, with mayo and other crap like that, and sans mayo et all, hot on the bun with butter. I never could stand the mayo version particularly when there is celery involved...

Fussy-Fussy Fussy.You must be a real jewel to go out and dine with.-charliezap

[slowpez]

You know what the saddest part of these lobster threads is? NBC.com just posted a list of the 10 best lobster shacks in Maine. Guess who was on that list - Reds. Now I really feel bad but after reading all the descriptions of lobster rolls I have come to the conclusion that all you do is take a perfectly good lobster, shred it and throw it on a hotdog bun. Why I ask? What does the hotdog bun add to the dish? Hotdog buns should be illegal to use with anything but a good hotdog or a really good bratwurst. Just give me some lobster steamed in seawater and I will die a happy woman. You know what? I'm kind of craving a hot dog now.

Cripes Charlie, I forgot to mention how good those photos are until I got to the last one. The bun does look good though.

[magkelly]

Fussy-Fussy Fussy.You must be a real jewel to go out and dine with.-charliezap

I know what I like and what I don't. I'm a total foodie and I am picky. I make no apologies for that. I spent way too much of my childhood eating total crap 95% of the time to not be justifiably picky now. For the record there are a lot of people up in New England who think the same way. To some people up there it's total sacrilege to put mayo et all in a lobster roll. Now a lot of people call the straight version a Connecticut roll, the mayo kind a Maine roll, and both are more or less acceptable. But when I was really little and we used to go up there only the tourist places ever sold the mayo version. The real local seafood places they sold the buttered version and they basically turned their noses up at the other kind.

It was the difference between say Red Lobster seafood and a wonderful local place. One would do you if you were not too picky but wouldn't you rather eat at a better class of restaurant than Red Lobster? My parents to this day love Red Lobster and frankly I don't really get it. To me that place is maybe one step up from Long John Silvers, except maybe for the biscuits which admittedly are pretty darned good. It's okay if you're looking for a cheap basic seafood meal but their steaks are awful, their seafood is grade B and there's a world of difference between seafood and steak at the local RL and that at most of the nicer restaurants in the area. I go to RL because the folks like to go there but I would never take company there the way they do. There are so many better places here that serve excellent food that RL is just nothing by comparison.

I will compromise when it comes a lot of things in life. But good food I won't compromise on. Not if I have a choice. When I eat lobster I want to be able to taste lobster and not much else. Putting mayo et all on it? That's just totally disguising some great tasting food to me. If you're going to do that then why bother? Why not just grab yourself a bag of the mock lobster? All that junk in there you probably wouldn't notice much difference anyway. :P

[eddie1960]

Charlie, you have my mouth watering, though i'm more a just eat the lobster no bun and give me that nice green Tomalley the best damn part MMMMM
Geez CeeCee those prices are nuts. Retail on lobster In Toronto (we are a good 1600 km from the closest lobster fishing in PEI) is anywhere from 6.25-8.00 per lb ($14 to $22 kg) on a regular basis.
Charlie has the benefit of buying direct from the lobster boat (and they probably do a little better off him than they would selling in bulk for it to be shipped)
I imagine if I could hit the PEI beds I would be in the same range as Charlie (been a while since i been out east, need to plan a trip for next year i think, get a place on the water and do big lobster boils and feast on seafood for a week or 2 :d

[charliezap]

Great job on giving us a short course in lobsterology. Cool shots, Capn.

Jer

looks sensational Charlie, "$4 a lb" oh how I wish, one of my (and Mrs CC's) favorite dishes, unfortunately the price of our local lobster/crayfish has been driven through the roof by the export prices they get. ..... $80- a Kg. that's just not right. - I just read something about China imposing some sort of ban on Australian Lobster causing prices to plummet to $30 Kg. I'm going to check that out for sure!!!
cheers.

Thanks Jer and Colin for the comments.As a reference a 5lb lobster yields about a lb of lobster meat.Fresh lobster meat by itself is selling for around $30 lb and that will get you 4plus good size rolls.--capn zap

[dcmsox2004]

big glut in the lobstah supply now.. 2.50 a pound !!! also finding many different colored lobstahs as well..
mouth watering series charlie.... dave m