I’m figuring out how to best grill lobster on my wood BBQ.
In general, there are two main approaches I’ve been able to find to this problem. One approach is to parboil the lobster and then finish by lightly grilling. The second approach is to do the whole thing on the grill.
Since I’ve gone to all the trouble of making the fire, I’m biased towards the second solution. However, I couldn’t find the recipe, so I decided to simply modify the parboiling recipe to suit.
cut live lobsters in two. Three 1 1/2 lobsters fit nicely on the grill.
place cut side up (to keep in the juice)
cook until red
baste with parsley garlic butter (1 stick of butter, 4-5 crushed garlic, random garden herbs), flip
additional 4 minutes.
Total cooking time: 15 minutes. Fire state: just gone into the coals stage, still hot /w some flames.
Overcooked: At a minimum, my recipe needed more tuning. For example, I read the boil-first recipe, and it has you boiling for 5-7 minutes and then grilling for 10. I substituted simply just grilling for 15 min. The result was a bit overcooked – like, the shell burned away from some of the claws overcooked. Part of the problem may have been the wood fire – it’s a lot hotter than a medium grill.
The little legs burned away. Sure, they’re fiddly anyway, but turning them all into charcoal is harsh criticism.
Ironically, the smoke flavour overwhelmed the lobster meat flavour – apparently, it is possible to get “too much” charcoal flavour for a delicate flavour like lobster meat.
Butter marinade not my favourite. I usually do the olive oil as a base, and I think I’ll switch back to it.
So I need to try again with less cooking time at a minimum. Or, switch to the parboil method as that will give you a juicier lobster.
Also, the whole thing was surprisingly easy – a lot like grilling the large shrimp that I sometimes do.
BTW, shrimp have some interesting marinades that I’d like to try – I remember a tequila-lime marinade in particular – that I wonder how that would translate to a lobster?
Another idea would be to soak the lobsters in white wine as they were cooking. Ie, place the lobsters on the grill shell side down and then pour a cup of white wine into them. The wine would boil and reduce while cooking, making the tail meat moist and flavourful. Of course, this doesn’t do anything for the poor claws