Saturday night was a scene of the age old lobster roll debate: mayo or butter? I’m strictly butter (why gild the lily)? Also I’m from Connecticut.

David’s a mayo guy.

The lobsters themselves had no opinion. All EIGHT of them. Shucking eight lobsters when you need to shower and your guests are knocking on the door and you can’t find the cracker can be a little stressful. And you might hurt yourself just a little bit.

So for the record, I like my lobsters straight out of the shell. But if I must shuck, I like butter.

Here it is, the result of our toil. Beautiful, naked lobster meat, just waiting for a drizzle of warm butter and a toasted hotdog roll.

There were a few side dishes. This one featured a lobster, albeit differently.

This is a bean salad. Black beans, cilantro, celery, red onions, rice vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.

We followed Jasper White’s recipe for the mayo batch. David added curry and celery.

Ingredients

Three 1 1/2-pound lobsters
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon minced tarragon
1 medium cucumber–peeled, seeded and cut into 1/4-inch dice
Tabasco
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 medium scallions, thinly sliced
6 hot-dog buns

Directions

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Plunge the lobsters in, head first, and cook until bright red all over, about 12 minutes. Transfer the lobsters to a bowl.
Crack the lobster claws and knuckles and remove the meat. Twist the tails from the bodies and slit the undersides lengthwise with scissors. Remove the meat and discard the black intestinal vein that runs along the tail. Cut the lobster into 1/2-inch pieces.

In a large bowl, mix together the mayonnaise, lemon juice, mustard and tarragon. Fold in the lobster meat and cucumber and season with Tabasco, salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate the lobster salad for at least 30 minutes. Just before serving, mix in the scallions. Generously fill each hot-dog bun with lobster salad and serve.

Turns out, lobster rolls are good for breakfast, too.

mmmmm.

To assuage my grief from having tossed the lobster bodies aside when making the rolls, we brewed up a nice lobster stock.

Not sure what to do with it quite yet, but it is cool looking at this stage.

Our guests were split down the middle on butter/mayo. Turns out, lobster is delicious most ways.

For those of you who like butter and are in Connecticut, try Abbott’s or The Place for your rolls.

Cheers!

Oh, excitement is now. We’re having a lobster roll festival this evening, and we shall attempt to make the rolls two ways: one recipe is with butter, and one is with mayo.  For now, the kitchen table awaits. The lobsters are currently being overshadowed by the lemons and the mozzarella, but trust us, they will be the main event.

We ended up going to Fairway for the lobsters, as time was tight and we needed to morning-shop. We were hoping to make a long overdue trip to Red Hook Lobster Pound. Next time!

Lobsters do bring everyone together; there was a small crowd around us as our lobsters were plucked from their tank, and our checkout lady was very chatty and impressed by our haul. And she had the Windex close at hand for the cleanup.

Off to make tomalley toast… more to come.