How to Grill the Perfect Lobster

Cookouts are one of the best moments you could spend and enjoy with some company. A lot of people will crave for seafood especially lobsters at special occasions, typically such as during Memorial Day, or even at random times. As BBQ and grilling season begins, to grill lobster would perfectly be one of the nicest ideas.  So if you are planning to cook the perfect lobster, the following key points that summarize the lobster grilling tips are for you.

Why live lobsters?

A core principle in cooking lobster is to initially make sure that the lobster gets cooked within 24 hours of procuring it. Thus, it would be best to plan your lobster cookout the moment you purchase the live lobster.

So, why live lobsters? You have to keep in mind that the lobsters must be kept alive until you are ready to cook for two critical reasons. Firstly, enzymes in a lobster’s dead body will rapidly break down the proteins in their muscle fibers converting them into certain substrates that will make its meat very mushy, and you would not want that. Secondly, bacterial contamination eventually causing food poisoning is very common among lobsters and other shellfish, which is also why they must be live up until they are cooked.

Since lobsters are saltwater organisms, they will surely not survive when in freshwater. To keep them alive while preparing for cooking, you can keep the lobsters refrigerated in a container with seaweed together with the ice packs or wet paper they are usually packaged with.

Recipe for grilled lobster

Ingredients

• 1.5 – 2 lb live lobsters
• 8 oz unsalted butter, melted and clarified
• a few sprigs of fresh herbs (e.g., tarragon, parsley, thyme)
• Three cloves of garlic, minced
• salt
• pepper

Instructions

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over very low heat to clarify the butter.
2. Upon making the milk solids sink, slowly pour the melted butter into bowls, leaving the milk solids in the pan.
3. To infuse flavor, mix the garlic and fresh herbs with the butter.
4. Set the bowls aside and keep it warm.
5. Split the lobsters into halves.
   • Place lobsters in a large container and freeze for 30 minutes.
   • Plunge the knife beginning on the first segment of the lobster’s length, moving the blade through the head and cutting it into the half.
   • Slice the remaining part of the body towards the tail, splitting it in half.
   • Discard the gastrointestinal tract by scooping it out with a spoon. You may choose to either include scooping out or reserve the soft, green substance in its body cavity, called tomalley.
   • Gently rinse the lobster halves with cool water.
   • Crack the claws on one side to allow easy penetration of smoky flavors from the grill and quick cooking of the meat. You may use the blunt end of the knife in cracking.
6. Fire up the grill and preheat for high-heat cooking.
7. Brush the insides of the lobsters with the butter and season with salt and pepper.
8. Coat a napkin with cooking oil and use it in seasoning the grill with a pair of tongs.
9. Place the lobster halves cut-side down onto the grill.
10. Cook for about four minutes.
11. Flip the lobsters and continue grilling with shell-side down until the internal temperature of the meat is 140 °F (60 °C). You may check out our ThermoPro Food Thermometer products.
12. Spot-check the tail meat’s internal temperature in multiple areas using the thermometer.
13. Hold claws steady using tongs and insert the thermometer’s probe through the cracked area of the claw.
14. Remove lobsters upon reaching the internal target temperature.
15. Immediately serve grilled lobsters together with the other reserved portion of infused clarified butter and lemon wedges.
16. Enjoy!