Maine Coast Lobster Rolls

By The New York Times

Published November 3, 2001

  • Rikki Snyder for The New York Times
Media 1 of 1
Total Time
20 minutes
Rating
4(1,000)
Comments
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Here is the simplest of recipes, brought to The Times in 2001 by Jason Epstein in the low, dispiriting weeks that followed the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. He was inspired, he wrote, by the food writer M.F.K. Fisher’s account of a disastrous love affair, and quoted her in his article about cooking for friends at that time: “We returned to the life that had been so real, like fog or smoke, caught in the current of air. We were two ghosts [but] very live ghosts, and drank and ate and saw and felt and made love better than ever before, with an intensity that seemed to detach us utterly from life.” Thus, of course, lobster rolls.

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Ingredients

Yield:6 servings

  • 1 pound cooked lobster meat

  • 4 stalks crisp, cold celery

  • 1 to 1 ¼ cups Hellmann's mayonnaise

  • 6 hot dog rolls, top-sliced (not side-sliced)

  • Paprika (optional)

  • Capers (optional)

  • 4 tablespoons butter, melted (optional)

Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)

24 grams carbs; 133 milligrams cholesterol; 558 calories; 11 grams monounsaturated fat; 21 grams polyunsaturated fat; 10 grams saturated fat; 44 grams fat; 2 grams fiber; 811 milligrams sodium; 17 grams protein; 4 grams 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

    Cut the lobster into ½-inch pieces and place in a bowl. Chop the celery into medium-fine pieces and stir into lobster. Stir in just enough mayonnaise to coat the lobster mixture.

  2. Step 2

    As is traditional in Maine lobster shacks, fry the rolls in a skillet or on a griddle in butter. Otherwise, toast them on both sides under a broiler. Add the lobster salad and sprinkle with paprika and a few capers.

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Comments

JMBHyannis

Way too much mayo and celery for a pound of lobster!! One or two celery stalks and maximum of 2 tablespoons of mayo.

rsmith

I moved from Downeast Maine to Richmond VA and finding top cut dog rolls is very easy. Every state on the east coast has top cut hotdog rolls. As for this recipe it's just wrong, 1lb lobster meat, tablespoon or two mayo and half a stick of celery is all you need. I been eating then this way for 50 years only Mass adds all this other stuff and in Milford CT they use butter.

cmbc

No. Just No. Not nearly enough lobster for 6 rolls, WAY too much mayo, WAY too much celery (if you insist on celery - which you shouldn't - you only need a small amount, in a pretty fine dice). NO capers, NO paprika.

Lobster. Melted butter. Or if you must have it with mayo, the smallest amount possible to pull it together.

As written, this is a sinful waste of lobster.

Reginald V. Wedge

The best Lobster(s) are those responsibly harvested from the super-cold waters of the rock-bound coastal waters of the New England States.

AKC

One pound makes FOUR servings, FYI. If you stretch it out to six, you would be considered stingy. In my part of the Maine coast, you can get some specialty lobster rolls, but traditional ones have No Celery or other additions -- Choose between hot butter and cold mayo. (On a hot day, I like a good amount of mayo, but many people don't. I don't really get the mayo haters among us.)

Dale

I've lusted for a real lobster roll all my life, but living near the Great Lakes rather than Maine, I've never had the chance to enjoy one. Do you use tail or any meat from the lobster? Where does the butter go? Is it drizzled onto the roll as it is eaten, or used to dip the roll into?

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