Murky origins. Feuding chefs. How the lobster roll went national.

August 8, 2016 5:52 AM

The Definitive Oral History of the Lobster Roll
posted by valkane (41 comments total)

I had never heard of a lobster roll before this post!

It's fascinating to see what regional/national foods are ubiquitous to locals but more/less unknown to people outside the place. I mean, I knew that Danes eat a lot of pork but never gave it much thought until one breakfast morning my parents put on a spread that was six types of pork (no bacon!) and my Scottish boyfriend was quite overcome with the porkiness of it all.

Lobster rolls.

I'm trying to think of the Scottish equivalent of something everyday that becomes A Thing. Tunnocks tea cakes? Potato scones?
posted by kariebookish at 6:05 AM on August 8, 2016 [3 favorites]

Tip, if you're making a mayonnaise-y "salad" base for anything, add in a tablespoon of yogurt or sour cream (or, ideally Greek tzatziki) and a half tablespoon of dill.
posted by The Whelk at 6:09 AM on August 8, 2016 [2 favorites]

Anyone insisting on using mayonnaise (much less HELLMAN'S mayonnaise) for their lobster roll has never had one made properly, which is served warm and with butter.

If you're in Boston, do yourself a favor and stop in at Neptune Oyster House, where they will open your eyes to what you have been missing. Similarly, Eventide in Portland, ME does a brown-butter lobster roll that is one of the most amazing things you will ever eat.
posted by Mayor West at 6:14 AM on August 8, 2016 [7 favorites]

It was Jasper White's Summer Shack Cookbook that got me going with the lobster rolls... and his genius in using cucumber rather than celery (I DON'T LIKE CELERY!).

I was pleased to see he was quoted in this piece. I also learned from him how to make the best possible chowder.

However, I think the true secret to the best possible lobster roll is the New England Style hotdog buns, toasted in a skillet with lots of butter. That's the taste of summertime, right there.
posted by valkane at 6:15 AM on August 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

This is one of those food dishes that Bostonians will fight over, much like everyone knows real clam chowder NEVER has tomatoes in it, wereyouraisedinabarn?

Interestingly enough, here's a recent AskMe about building a tastier lobster roll.

I stand by the hack of skillet-toasting the hot dog bun in butter to buttery, crispy deliciousness, then a layer of Hellman's (this can be skipped) going heavy with the lobster meat and THEN pouring a concoction of melted butter, lemon juice and some salt and pepper onto the lobster meat. Maybe some celery salt...MAYBE.

Making a lobster meat salad and then putting into a bun is just plain wrong, just like calling those tomato and cheese deep dish pies from Chicago pizzas.
posted by yes I said yes I will Yes at 6:25 AM on August 8, 2016 [3 favorites]

I may need to make lobster rolls for dinner soon. I've been to Maine a few times and it would bring back some good memories.
posted by TedW at 6:28 AM on August 8, 2016

Wow, as a lifelong sheltered New Englander, I've been eating lobster rolls all my life and didn't realize they were such a relatively recent thing. If you've never gone to every hole-in-the-wall shack from the Cape all the way up to Maine and tried their respective rolls, you're missing out.
posted by jozxyqk at 6:35 AM on August 8, 2016

However, I think the true secret to the best possible lobster roll is the New England Style hotdog buns, toasted in a skillet with lots of butter.

I don't even really eat lobster rolls, but yes, this. Split-top buns are the only appropriate holder for lobster rolls or hot dogs. Hot dogs in a sub roll are heresy.

(Yes, I'm from Massachusetts, how can you tell?)
posted by tocts at 6:57 AM on August 8, 2016 [2 favorites]

Anyone insisting on using mayonnaise (much less HELLMAN'S mayonnaise) for their lobster roll has never had one made properly, which is served warm and with butter.

I'm gonna go ahead and get this out of the way early in the thread: like clam chowder, there are two major styles of lobster roll. Connecticut style is served warm with butter; Maine style is served cold with mayonnaise. Both are perfectly valid dishes, both are going for entirely different things, and comparing them is apples-and-oranges enough to be an exercise in futility.

Ok, carry on.
posted by Itaxpica at 7:02 AM on August 8, 2016 [12 favorites]

Hot dogs in a sub roll are heresy.

The worst is when someone tries to get cute and put lobster on something chewy and substantial like ciabatta. Staaaahp!
posted by ftm at 7:03 AM on August 8, 2016 [4 favorites]

Anyone insisting on using mayonnaise (much less HELLMAN'S mayonnaise) for their lobster roll has never had one made properly, which is served warm and with butter.

Legal Sea Foods, a local Boston restaurant chain, will serve lobster rolls at lunch with a choice of either cold mayonnaise or warm butter dressing, and I always find it amusing that they will strive for inclusivity in the Connecticut vs. Maine debate that Itaxpica mentioned, but fuck you if you want a Manhattan style clam chowder.

My wife grew up spending her summers with grandparents in coastal Maine, and watching her eat a steamed lobster is like watching a Marine take apart and service their rifle. She's also gotten distracted when we're seated at a bar and someone next to us has ordered a steamed lobster and obviously doesn't know what to do with claw cracker or starts using their regular dinner fork instead of the lobster fork.
posted by bl1nk at 7:06 AM on August 8, 2016 [7 favorites]

I'm not gonna sit here and pretend I'd say no to any lobster roll style. I don't care what bread it's on just gimme. I've never had a non-delicious lobster roll.
posted by bleep at 7:07 AM on August 8, 2016 [5 favorites]

Is it just me, but I don't taste the wonder of lobster?
posted by A189Nut at 7:10 AM on August 8, 2016 [2 favorites]

Cold+mayo and warm+butter lobster rolls are just twice as much deliciousness to try.
There's no feud here.

We will not bring up the heresy of Manhattan clam chowder.
posted by jozxyqk at 7:10 AM on August 8, 2016 [4 favorites]

The secret to Manhattan clam chowder is to serve it over ziti with lots of parmigiano-reggiano and some crusty peasant bread.
posted by valkane at 7:17 AM on August 8, 2016 [7 favorites]

Is it really a lobster roll if you're not sitting at the side of the road on some old picnic tables a warm New England summers evening. I think it can't possibly be a true lobster roll without that. Also with some fried whole belly clams.
posted by koolkat at 7:18 AM on August 8, 2016 [5 favorites]

Yeah, clam chowder (like pizza) was a bad choice for food feuds because there's clearly a Right and Wrong answer.

Ok, let's go with bagels. Montreal-style and New York-style bagels are two quite different but equally tasty things, just like the two kinds of lobster roll.
posted by Itaxpica at 7:21 AM on August 8, 2016 [2 favorites]

I've not ever eaten a lobster roll. I currently live in the Niagara region of Ontario. If anyone has a recommendation for a decent roll joint, I would welcome that information. Toronto is not too far for me and if the food is right, I'm more than willing to make the 1.5 hour trip for it.
posted by Fizz at 7:21 AM on August 8, 2016

I've never eaten one, but I live in Houston. Is there a Tex-Mex or Cajun version?
posted by Beholder at 7:29 AM on August 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

If your regional food specialty is just something put inside some bread, you may need to try harder.
Dip it in something unlikely and deep fry it, maybe?
posted by pipeski at 7:42 AM on August 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

...but fuck you if you want a Manhattan style clam chowder.

There's an entire state quite partial tew invertebrate seafewd who will take issue with yewur criticism of tewmatew based seafewd chowder, hon.
posted by leotrotsky at 7:45 AM on August 8, 2016 [2 favorites]

How 'bout dem O's?
posted by leotrotsky at 7:51 AM on August 8, 2016

I've never eaten one, but I live in Houston. Is there a Tex-Mex or Cajun version?
posted by Beholder at 10:29 AM on August 8

Go sit in the corner.
posted by yes I said yes I will Yes at 8:06 AM on August 8, 2016 [4 favorites]

Is there a Tex-Mex or Cajun version?

Swap out lobster for crab or shrimp, change up the bun, and put the words "po' boy" in there and you're all set. Not a lobster roll, but delicious none-the-less.
posted by valkane at 8:16 AM on August 8, 2016 [4 favorites]

Wait, when did the O's move to Rhode Island?
posted by Huffy Puffy at 8:24 AM on August 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

If your regional food specialty is just something put inside some bread, you may need to try harder.

If you believe that this regional food specialty is simply about taking a dead lobster and sandwiching it in a bun, you may need to troll harder.
posted by bl1nk at 8:33 AM on August 8, 2016 [10 favorites]

Young's Lobster Pound, Belfast, ME. My favorite lobster roll.

Served on a... get this... lightly-toasted sesame seed hamburger-type bun, that right there is probably enough to make the purists cringe, but the purists can all go pound sand. It's filled with plenty of fresh lobster and just the right amount of mayo and lettuce. Get a giant plate of steamers while you're there.

The ordering counter is crammed into one corner of the working, warehouse-sized lobster pound, and, after walking past all the filtered bins of lobster, you eat out back on picnic tables right on the water overlooking Belfast harbor. The last two times I was there a bald eagle flew over my head.

It's one of the most perfect Maine experiences and I always a stop on the way to or from Acadia NP.
posted by bondcliff at 8:34 AM on August 8, 2016 [5 favorites]

I live in Connecticut. My brother lives in Maine. You would think that would lead to strong opinions about lobster rolls, but turns out, neither of us cares that much about shellfish. It would seem our most important family value is, "If you're buying, we'll eat it." Plus, we grew up in California, so what do we know anyway?

That said, I get a kick out of hearing my Massachusetts-born father-in-law describe the elaborate shelling ritual his mother would undertake to ensure that special occasions were accompanied by glistening mounds of fresh lobster meat and drawn butter. By all accounts, she was a phenomenal cook, but she believed that if you were there to eat lobster, then you were there to eat lobster, no faffing about with crackers and bibs at the table. Sadly, she passed a few years back, and I never had the chance to taste her cooking, but I do have one glorious memory of the day she showed me how to eat my first lobster roll.

It was my first New England summer festival, and I didn't have a clue, but the whole week leading up, my husband's family had been nattering on about how we were going to have lobster rolls (or "lopster rolls," in the case of my charmingly idiosyncratic husband). In the years since, I have had much better lobster rolls since the spongy, bland concoction that was my initiation, but I assure you that witnessing a tiny 101-year old woman tear into a lobster roll with the kind of gusto usually reserved for toddlers on Christmas morning is the kind of illustrative life lesson that sticks with you for a very long time.
posted by Diagonalize at 9:11 AM on August 8, 2016 [3 favorites]

Is it just me, but I don't taste the wonder of lobster?

I grew up in New England, with regular visits to the Cape itself, and....I'm mezzo-mezzo on lobster myself. There's a kind of sweetness to the meat that I'm not too keen on (which may also explain why I loved it as a kid). Also, when I was a kid we didn't have lobster rolls, we ate lobster whole, pulled direct out of the sea; we went fishing on Grandpa's boat every time we would visit them, and every fishing trip ended with a ritual checking of five lobster traps Grandpa had set in the harbor close to his dock. Four out of five times the only things in them were huge conches, which my brother and I would try to use as squirt guns while we puttered on to the next trap (the conch would be sticking out of the shell a little, and if you poked it gently it would suck back into the shell and squirt water at you, and my brother and I would try to aim that at each other), but once in a while we got a lobster or two, which would become part of that night's dinner.

If your regional food specialty is just something put inside some bread, you may need to try harder.

Y'all over in England didn't even come up with fish and chips before us folks in NEW England were frying clams so thhhbbbfffff.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:11 AM on August 8, 2016 [3 favorites]

Is it just me, but I don't taste the wonder of lobster?

I'm with you, as I kinda implied above. It's not bad, but I have never really found it to be the OMG AMAZING thing a lot of people do, and it's typically expensive, so why bother?

Now, if you want to fill up that griddled bun with fried scallops, that's a different story altogether.
posted by tocts at 9:42 AM on August 8, 2016

I'm a bona fide lifelong New Englander (grandparents from Maine, many summer vacations in Maine) and while I like lobster, I'm not a total fiend for it - in true yankee fashion, my enthusiasm for a lobster roll is directly proportional to 1) how much it costs and 2) how much lobster you get for your money. The closer you are to a lobster pound and/or the road-sidier the shack, the better the cost/lobster ratio is likely to be.

I never gave much thought to ingredients until the first time I tried a drawn butter-only lobster roll, which was an epiphany. Lobster has such a delicate flavor on its own that mayo/dill/lemon juice tend to overpower it; butter is the perfect unobtrusive complement and really lets the flavor through. Piled on a New England style roll (both sides grilled in butter, of course) with a piece of lettuce for a little texture, it's perfection. My butter-only epiphany was at Rising Tide Restaurant in Scarborough Maine, where you can watch the lobster boats come in. (You can choose butter or mayo when you order, and you get your condiment on the side.) Best lobster roll ever.
posted by usonian at 9:46 AM on August 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

Is it just me, but I don't taste the wonder of lobster?

Definitely not just you although I like the brininess that reminds me of scallops. It can also have a wicked rubbery or overly chewy consistency in the tail and sometimes the big claws are weirdly chalky or soft and mushy.

Fried clam bellies, though; now we're talking.
posted by yes I said yes I will Yes at 10:10 AM on August 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

I've never eaten one, but I live in Houston. Is there a Tex-Mex or Cajun version?
posted by Beholder at 9:29 AM on August 8 [+] [!]

New Orleanian here. I've had a really good crawfish roll made much the same way. Crawfish tails, mayo, butter-toasted bun. I've also had crab and shrimp salad on a roll. It's a good way to use the leftovers from a seafood boil.
posted by domo at 10:59 AM on August 8, 2016

VI. “Now Everybody Has to Differentiate Their Lobster Roll with What They Do That’s Special.”

Seriously. Fuck you guys. Once you go off the basic script, you're doing it wrong.
posted by mikelieman at 12:32 PM on August 8, 2016

usonian - that's why I like a classic baked beans and hot dog dinner just as much as a good lobster roll. My Maine frugalism has a way of enhancing the taste of cheap staples due to their very cheapness.
posted by mbatch at 3:59 PM on August 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

Beholder: Houston has a lobster roll food truck by the guys in the article roaming around.
posted by Cyrano at 4:09 PM on August 8, 2016

Beholder: Houston has a lobster roll food truck by the guys in the article roaming around.

Thanks, but which one?
posted by Beholder at 4:33 PM on August 8, 2016

If you believe that this regional food specialty is simply about taking a dead lobster and sandwiching it in a bun, you may need to troll harder.

Well, obviously, that's the extra-crunchy lobster roll. You pay extra for that.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 5:41 PM on August 8, 2016

Seriously. I guess the Maine lobster industry doesn't want you to know about Nova Scotia.
posted by Sys Rq at 7:06 PM on August 8, 2016

Beholder: Houston has a lobster roll food truck by the guys in the article roaming around.

Thanks, but which one?

Cousins (which is a franchise so only tangentially by the guys in the article). Houston also has Mainely Sandwiches. Don't ask me why we have multiple lobster places in a crawfish and shrimp loving town but there you go.
posted by librarylis at 8:05 PM on August 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

No lie, I went to three different places tonight looking for a lobster roll (except McDonalds, which has a lobster roll season for Maritimers, but I have some standards). Due to a series of unfortunate events, I did not get one. Perhaps tomorrow I'll be luckier...anyway, if you want a good lobster roll, come to PEI.
posted by ghost dance beat at 7:22 PM on August 9, 2016