Boiled Lobster With Lobster Mayonnaise

By Mark Bittman and Sam Sifton

Published December 15, 2012

  • Christaan Felber for The New York Times
Media 1 of 1
Total Time
45 minutes
Rating
4(85)
Comments
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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.

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Ingredients

Yield:8 servings

  • 4 1 ¼- to 1 ½-pound lobsters

  • 2 egg yolks

  • 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar or lemon juice

  • 1 cup neutral oil, like grapeseed or corn

  • 1 cup olive oil

  • ¼ cup or more lobster stock Salt and black pepper to taste

Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)

6 grams carbs; 432 milligrams cholesterol; 515 calories; 21 grams monosaturated fat; 4 grams polyunsaturated fat; 5 grams saturated fat; 31 grams fat; 1 gram fiber; 1325 milligrams sodium; 53 grams protein; 1 gram sugar

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. Step 3

    Put the yolks and vinegar in a food processor. While it runs, add the neutral oil. When emulsion forms, add olive oil.

  4. Step 4

    Remove to a bowl, stir in cooled stock and knuckle meat; add salt and pepper.

  5. Step 5

    Arrange each of the tails and claws on a plate and serve with the mayonnaise.

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Ratings

4 out of 5
85 user ratings
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Comments

PJ

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.

Stephen

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.

jmarquise22

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.

Craig Burdick

Served them warm. Perfect

Painter33

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.

Karsan

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

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