Boiled Lobster With Lobster Mayonnaise

Name: Boiled Lobster With Lobster Mayonnaise
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients: 4 1 1/4- to 1 1/2-pound lobsters; 2 egg yolks; 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar or lemon juice; 1 cup neutral oil, like grapeseed or corn; 1 cup olive oil; 1/4 cup or more lobster stock Salt and black pepper to taste

By Mark Bittman and Sam Sifton

Total Time: 45 minutes
Rating: 4(81)
Comments: Read comments

Here is a recipe for a cold lobster appetizer or main course that Mark Bittman and I ginned up for a feast-in-a-day project for The Times’s Sunday Magazine in 2012. You boil the lobsters off and allow them to cool, then reduce the leftover stock to make a flavoring agent for mayonnaise. Add some chopped lobster knuckles to that, and serve a dollop of it alongside the claw and tail meat, perhaps with herbs or a chopped salad. It’s fancy food made easy.

Featured in: Feast in a Day

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Ingredients

Yield:8 servings

41¼- to 1½-pound lobsters
2egg yolks
2tablespoons sherry vinegar or lemon juice
1cup neutral oil, like grapeseed or corn
1cup olive oil
¼cup or more lobster stock Salt and black pepper to taste

Ingredient Substitution Guide

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Preparation

Step 1
Bring a large pot of water to a boil; salt it. Cook lobsters until red, 12 to 15 minutes. Remove lobsters and allow stock to reduce over medium heat.
Step 2
Split tail, remove meat, and put it back in the shell. Remove the claw meat. Set both aside. Remove and chop knuckle meat, and set aside for the mayonnaise.
Step 3
Put the yolks and vinegar in a food processor. While it runs, add the neutral oil. When emulsion forms, add olive oil.
Step 4
Remove to a bowl, stir in cooled stock and knuckle meat; add salt and pepper.
Step 5
Arrange each of the tails and claws on a plate and serve with the mayonnaise.

Ratings

4 out of 5

81 user ratings

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Comments

PJ7 years ago

On vacation in Maine visiting a lobster pound I watched a guy just plucking lobsters out of the boiling water in a large tank. How do you know when they're done I asked? First use a big enough pot so,they can rise up in the boiling water, and when they do, they're done. Skeptical and fearful, I,timed the first few I did, then stopped, because the guy was right on.

Stephen7 years ago

Try using larger lobsters sometime. (Two people can always share one.) Lobsters in the 1 1/4- to 1 1/2-pound range are a lot of work for relatively little food. A slightly higher percentage of the weight of bigger lobsters is edible meat. And while you have to guard against overcooking, the notion that larger lobsters are less sweet or tender is a groundless myth.

jmarquise227 years ago

Chop the knuckles up? For shame. Savor the texture and flavor of the best part and chop the meat from the body and "walking legs". Add the tomalley as well for a lovely jade hued unctuousness.

Painter333 months ago

15 minutes is too long. 12 minutes is ideal for a pound and a half lobster (or two). That’s 12 minutes from putting the lobster(s) in the boiling water.

Karsan5 years ago

Made this butter with Dungeness Crab stock bc it is what I had, which included crab nuckles . Wonderful!

david ankeles7 years ago

Never boil a lobster when you can steam it. Boiling removes a lot of flavor and changes the texture of the meat. Use some ocean water and sweet water together. No salt necessary.

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