How To Grill Whole Lobster

Tips For Grilling Lobster

How to Cook Whole Lobster | Grilled | Easy Delicious Recipe

Following these tips will make the cooking process easier and enhance the flavor of your lobster.

Prepare your ice bath before you boil the lobster.

Use sea salt. Anything that comes from the sea tastes better with sea salt.
When you grill, start with the flesh side down. Then when you finish, the flesh side will be up so you can add a small amount of additional compound butter.
After the lobster is off the grill, and just before serving, add a final squeeze of fresh lemon and a dash of sea salt.

Simple Grilled Whole Lobster Recipe

Prep Time:25 minutes

pinchof ground pepper
1teaspoonminced garlic

Directions

Parboil the lobster so you don’t end up with a nicely grilled outside and raw inside. Drop the lobster in a pot of boiling water, remove after five minutes and shock in an ice bath to stop it from cooking any further.

Slice the lobster lengthwise all the way through into two halves. Clean out the tomalley from the body.

With the same knife, cut small slits in the claws to vent while cooking. Brush the exposed meat with a mixture of melted butter, lemon juice, a little salt and freshly ground pepper, and if you want, some minced garlic.

Clean and lightly oil the grill and get your coals at medium heat. Lay the lobster flesh side down and cook for about five minutes. Then turn it over, brush on more lemon butter, and cook shell side down for another five minutes. When finished the meat should be firm and opaque all the way through.

Serve with more lemon butter on the side.

How To Tell If A Lobster Is Spoiled

Your lobsters should look healthy and lively with tails straight and claws up. Sometimes lobsters get tired from the cold temperature or traveling, but at the very least the small legs underneath should be moving.

If you have a lobster that is not moving, set it on its back for a couple of minutes to see if it starts to move. If your Maine lobster does not revive within a couple of minutes then it is certainly dead, then do not cook the lobster and let us know as soon as you discover the loss. In this unlikely event, please lay the lobster on its back and take a picture and email customer service with photos for a refund. Including an invoice number will expedite the refund process.

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Preparing Live Lobster For The Bbq

You can grill whole lobster without prepping them as some chefs do, but we suggest splitting them to allow the smokiness of the grill flavor to come through. According to tests by Cooks Illustrated, a split lobster was the best way to get the real grill flavor and maximize the sweet flavor of the lobster meat.

Now with no danger of getting pinched, remove the bands from the claws. Place your chilled or blanched lobster on its underside and with the tip of a sharp chef knife start behind the eyes at the head and split the lobster lengthwise all the way through the tail. Use a good pair of kitchen shears to help cut through the tail section. Remove the small grey sac behind the head, the jet black roe , and the green tomalley and discard. Also remove the intestinal black vein running from the stomach sac to the tip of the tail.

Getting Ready To Cook

How to Grill Lobsters Without Ruining Them

Perfectly cooked lobster is very delicious and a great way to impress your guests. However, if not done properly it can be a great expense and ruin the entire evening. We make live lobsters easy to cook. Steaming and boiling are the two most common ways to cook lobsters. In the winter, lobsters have a harder shell and therefore require more time to cook. In the summer, the lobsters have a softer shell and require less time. It’s always best to under cook your lobster than to overcook. Also it’s important to cool your lobsters when you are done boiling or steaming so they stop cooking. It’s very common for people to leave the steaming lobsters in the pot and they continue to cook even taken off the stove or flame which will ruin your lobster. We recommend spraying with fresh water using the hose in your sink or even your outside hose for events.

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How To Grill Lobster Tail Halves

Step 1: Light grill and set up for two-zone cooking. Arrange coals so you have a high-heat area where the coals peak, and a more medium heat area where the coals are not as close to the grill grate. If youre using a gas grill, turn one burner on max and the one next to it on medium.

Step 2: Place chipotle butter in a small saucepan and place it on the inside of the grill but not directly over a heat source. You dont want to burn the butter, just melt it and get it nice and warm.

Step 3: While grill is preheating, rinse lobster tails with cold water and pat dry with a paper towel.

TIP: Its important to get the tail as dry as possible or the meat will steam when placed on the hot grill as opposed to sear.

Step 4: Spray a thin coat of olive oil on the meat side of the tail halves. I use this oil spray bottle, but if you dont have one you can use a basting brush as well.

Step 5: Place tails meat side down over direct high heat. Grill for 5 minutes.

Step 6: Turn tails over and place over the medium-high heat zone, baste liberally with melted chipotle butter, then sprinkle cilantro. Let meat poach in the butter sauce for 35 minutes or until internal temperature is to your preference as indicated with a reliable instant read thermometer.

Step 7: Plate and serve while warm.

Grilled Lobster Halves With Chipotle Butter

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How To Grill Lobster

Chef Rebecca Charles has been New Yorks undisputed queen of lobster since she opened Pearl Oyster Bar in 1997.

Chef Rebecca Charles has been New Yorks undisputed queen of lobster since she opened Pearl Oyster Bar in 1997. Her seafood menu transported beach-shack classics from Maine to Manhattan, and her signature lobster roll started a national trend that has never diminished. Charless family has deep roots in Maine theyve summered in Kennebunk for nearly 100 years. But their preferred lobster-cooking method is a little unorthodox: They grill. The dry heat imbues the lobster meat with the taste of the shell, giving it a more complex, caramelized flavor, says Charles. Its the same reason meat cooked on the bone tastes better.

Here, Charles shares her method for grilling lobsters, along with three variations on a butter sauce. Even if youre not relaxing on the Maine coast, theres no better way to celebrate summer.

Grilled Lobsters

Four 1 ½-pound live lobsters, cleaned and halved lengthwiseOlive oil2 large lemons, cut into wedgesCorn, for serving

Basic Butter Sauce, with Variations1/3 cup white wine1/3 cup red wine vinegar3 shallots, finely chopped

Corn:Add ½ cup corn, simmered in lightly salted water until soft, pureed and strained, and 1 teaspoon chives

Tomato Chive:Add 2 tablespoons diced, seeded tomatoesand 1 teaspoon chopped chives

Lemon Chive:Add 1 teaspoon lemon zestand 1 tablespoon chopped chivesWhisk.

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How To Eat Lobster Like A Pro

Now its time to enjoy the delicious meats of your labor. If you havent already, nows the time to take a mallet and crack the claws until the delicious claw and knuckle meat comes out. Once the claws are done, you can either chill them and then eat them cold, or you can get right into it and eat them hot, says Ezelle.

As for the tail meat, it should be cooked to the point where it pops right out. Your next topic of concern should be what type of sauce to enjoy with your lobster. Some folks like the unadulterated taste of lobster meat, while others enjoy it with melted butter. Ezelle also suggests trying it with a Meyer lemon vinaigrette to balance the richness of the meat, or even cocktail sauce if thats the sort of thing youre into. You can also use kitchen shears to get to the meat more easily if youd like

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How Does Grilling Improve The Flavor Of Grilled Lobster Tail Halves

How to Split and Best Way Grill a Whole Lobster – Warning! Live Kill!

Pretty simple really, and it starts with the sear and the Maillard reaction. By grilling the tail halves, you start with the flesh side down so the lobster meat itself gets a really nice sear. Second, and equally important, is that the lobster shells themselves act as a cooking vessel and hold the sauce. The lobster tail meat is poached in the sauce after its been seared and taken on some great flavor from the grill. In todays recipe were using my chipotle butter, but you can absolutely use roasted garlic and dill butter, or herb butter, or even just some lemon juice and garlic.

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How Can You Tell If Lobster Is Cooked

Cooked lobster is slightly firm to the touch and nontransparent. The meat will be white and can be easily separated by two forks.

If the meat is soft to the touch or still transparent, it needs more time on the grill.

Lobsters turn red when you cook them, but the pigment itself does not tell you whether the meat is perfectly cooked.

How To Dispatch The Lobster Humanely

Theres some dispute over whether lobsters feel pain two studies over the past 10 years have arrived at different conclusions. Either way, you should dispatch the lobster quickly before cooking it. The best way to go about this is to dull the lobsters senses by putting it in the freezer for at least 20 minutes, then splitting its skull in half with a large kitchen knife.

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Cooking The Lobsters Claws

The lobster claws will take more time to cook than the lobster body and tail meat, since the shells tend to be a little thicker. Remove the claws from the carapace with a twisting motion. Next blanch the claws and finish cooking on the grill. Famed lobster cooker Jasper White keeps the claws intact and covers them with a roasting pans or pie tins so the whole lobster cooks evenly.

Tips For The Perfect Lobster

You can use any type of lobster for this recipe. I typically use Maine lobster, but you can use a warm water spiny lobster if you prefer.
Lobster tails are done when the shell turns red and the flesh is opaque. Its important not to overcook your lobster, so use both the visual cues and the suggested cook times.

I recommend serving lobster immediately after it comes off the grill. Lobster can get tough when reheated.
You can use a charcoal grill, gas grill or an indoor grill pan on the stove top for this recipe.
Serve your lobster with lemon wedges and fresh parsley for garnish.

I like to serve my lobster with a variety of side dishes such as grilled vegetables, quinoa salad or roasted potatoes.
Leftover lobster? Try using it to make lobster mac and cheese.

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Jumbo Lobster Boiling Instructions:

Bring a very large pot with lid to a rolling boil. Add enough salt so that the water flavor mimics the salt of the ocean. Add the lobster to the pot using oven-safe gloves. If you choose to remove the rubber bands before cooking, place the lobster in the freezer for about 45 to 1 hour before cooking so that its safe to remove the bands, otherwise, proceed to the next step.

Add the lobster to the pot, cover with the lid and cook until the internal temperature of the tail reaches 170F.

To check the temperature, use a digital thermometer. Place the probe into the top part of the tail through its soft membrane. The probe should go into the meat and not between the meat and the shell to get a proper reading.

The claws take more time to cook in a large lobster so first check the tail with the thermometer, and once its reached 170, then check the claws. To do this, insert the probe of the digital thermometer into the soft membrane just above the top of the claw and into the claw meat. Its important to check both claws for temperatures since they are different sizes and remember, the larger the lobster, the longer it will take to cook the claws. We recommend cooking the lobster until the tail is 170, then removing the claws from the lobster and letting them continue to cook until they separately reach 170. Check out the chart below for further cooking time information.

How To Grill Lobster Tails

Once youve halved your lobster tails, pat the flesh dry with paper towel, brush them with a little olive oil, then season with coarse salt and cracked black pepper.

Place the lobster tails flesh-side down onto grill, and cook undisturbed for about 5 minutes. This allows the meat to grill properly without sticking to the grill plates. Flip the lobster over and brush the flesh with melted garlic and herb butter.

Cover with bbq lid or foil to help the shells turn a beautiful shade of orange from the smoke on the bbq, and grill until JUST cooked through.

Serve immediately with a little extra garlic butter, lemon wedges and fresh parsley to garnish.

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Whole Lobsters Or Lobster Tails

You can prepare the lobster either whole or just the tail. The former involves some more prep and probably some parboiling, depending on its size. You also have some latitude with cooking times. Suffice to say that most likely, itll take your grill longer to preheat than itll take to cook them. The primary difference when preparing this delicious seafood is that Its either done or overcooked with nothing in between.

Timing, therefore, is of the essence. Fortunately, the lobster itself makes it easier with its evident color change. However, its not surefire, so well give you some other tips for judging doneness.

We also have to address the elephant in the room. If you get whole lobsters, youre going to have to dispatch them first. Luckily, we have some advice on that score, too.

Youll find lobster tails sold frozen. If your grocery store has them on sale, you might find them thawing nicely at the seafood counter. You must thaw them first, but even that process is quicker than prepping any meat.

If you buy live lobsters, you should choose the most active ones in the bunch. Select ones that are similar in size. Please, keep the bands on their claws.

Prepare The Tail Of The Lobster

How to Grill Lobster

After completely thawing the tail of the lobster, you place it on the cutting board so that the abdomen is facing down, the back has the shell curled upwards. Use specialized kitchen scissors or a knife to cut along the curved back of the tail down to the end of the tail. Remember to leave the bottom part of the lobster belly intact so that the two halves of the tail are still stuck together. Separate the newly cut back so that the two parts have a hinge in the middle.

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Grilled Lobster Tail Halves With Chipotle Butter

This post is sponsored by Omaha Steaks. Sponsored posts, along with affiliate links, are what enable bloggers like me to maintain and operate sites that are free to the public. That said, I only work with products and brands that I personally use and would feel proud to give as a gift.

If you Google how to grill lobster tails or grilled lobster tail recipes, youll find countless really good recipes. What you wont find much of, however, are recipes for grilled lobster tail halves. Most recipes use a technique that calls for splitting the shell of the tail down the center, pulling the meat out of the shell, and then laying it back on top of the shell to cook.

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Ive done this myself many times, and it is certainly an impressive way to present your food. The problem is that its somewhat labor-intensive. Watch out for the sharp shells when youre pulling the meat out after youve cut the shell open with some kitchen shears.

Worse than the labor part, though, this method doesnt allow the lobster meat to cook in the sauce of your choice. For example, lemon butter sort of just drips off the meat as it sits on the grill. So, theres a trade-off of sorts. The presentation of traditional cooked lobster tail is amazing, but I personally prefer grilled lobster tail halves. What grilled lobster tail halves lose in appearance is more than made up in the better flavor.

Can You Microwave Cooked Lobster

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Garazi Pascalau

How to Heat Frozen Whole Lobster

Place a large pot on your stove’s biggest burner, and fill it with water.

Drop your frozen lobsters into the pot, taking care not to splash yourself with the boiling water.

Remove your pot from the heat and cover it with its lid.

Remove a lobster from the pot with a pair of tongs.

Rudesindo Prolubnikov

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Should I Boil Or Steam Lobster Tails

Whole lobster tails or fan-cut lobster tails work best for boiling lobster tails. For a simple boil cook, place them in boiling water ensuring that the whole tail is covered and then wait until the meat is bright white and shells turn red. If the tail is big, it is recommended to boil them to get a more even cook.