Food & Wine’s Lobster Rolls Are Creamy, Crunchy, and Totally Cover-Worthy

If you have ever cooked a whole lobster and slid the meat off the shell, then you know that satisfying feeling of pulling the entire piece of claw meat out in one fell swoop. It doesn’t always happen, but when it does, it feels damn good. So, when I saw the picture of these lobster rolls on the Food & Wine website, each boasting a cover-worthy claw on top of each roll, I was undeniably intrigued. Here’s how it went when I gave the recipe a try.

Get the recipe: Food & Wine’s Maine-Style Lobster Rolls

To start, steam the whole lobsters, which is detailed in a separate recipe here. Use only the claw and knuckle meat for these rolls and chop it up into 1/2-inch pieces. Separately, whisk the mayonnaise, lemon juice, chervil, salt, and pepper. Stir in the celery and the chopped lobster meat. 

Butter the sides of split-top buns and lightly toast in a hot skillet. Lay a leaf of butter lettuce inside the bun and then stuff with the cold lobster mixture. Top with chives and a whole pincer claw (if you have one) for garnish.

These were, without question, the best-looking rolls of the bunch. If you put two lobster rolls in front of me and one is topped with a whole claw and one is not, I’m gonna opt for the claw every time. Looks aside, they tasted great, too. The mayo mixture was simple yet well-seasoned, and I am a sucker for a chive garnish, so I really appreciated that as well.

I’ll admit that I was really waiting for this claw claim to blow my socks off. Has lobster claw meat been so much better all this time and I had no idea? Admittedly, it was pretty hard for me to tell that the meat used for this sandwich was from the claw as opposed to the tail. Sure, sinking my teeth into the whole claw on top of the roll was certainly satisfying, but I can’t say that the lobster meat mixture tasted substantially different from the others. So, if it came down to it, I would say that you can make these with whatever lobster meat you can get your hands (or claws) on.

The only note I have for this absolute stunner of a lobster roll recipe is to trim the edges off the sides of the bun. That way, there’s a flat side for the bun to rest on as it cooks for an even, golden-brown toast. Butter and toast the trimmings for a chef snack.

Rating: 9.2/10