Planked Lobster
To plank a lobster heat the plank very hot. Kill the lobster by splitting it into halves, lay it on the plank shell side down; put it under the gas for twenty minutes; baste with butter; dust with salt and pepper, and cook ten minutes longer. Garnish with small fried French potato balls and grated cucumber in tiny lettuce leaves. 6 crabs
A plank recipe written for a gas broiler with a hot hardwood board underneath — the board is a serving vessel and a heat reservoir, not a smoking device. Two things need adjusting: the cooking time and the stray line at the end.
- "Put it under the gas"This means a gas broiler or salamander, radiant heat from above. A modern broiler set to high, with the lobster 4-6 inches from the element, is the equivalent.
- Total time is far too longThirty minutes under a broiler will turn lobster tail meat into fibrous cotton. A split 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 lb lobster needs roughly 8 to 12 minutes total under high heat, basted once or twice, until the flesh is opaque and just firm.
- The plankAn untreated hardwood plank — oak, hickory or maple — about an inch thick, seasoned by oiling and heating repeatedly. Heat it empty in a hot oven (around 400F) until it is thoroughly hot, then lay the lobster on it; the recipe's "heat the plank very hot" matters, since a cold board absorbs heat that should be cooking the lobster. Never use plywood, softwood, or anything glued or treated.
- Splitting the lobsterDrive a heavy knife through the head behind the eyes first, then split lengthwise through the tail. Remove the sand sac and the intestinal vein; the green tomalley and any coral can be left in and are traditionally eaten.
- BastingMelted butter, brushed on generously and repeated. Butter under a high broiler will brown and can burn — clarified butter behaves better over the full time.
- "Grated cucumber in tiny lettuce leaves"Salt the grated cucumber and let it drain 10 minutes, then squeeze it dry, or the lettuce cups collapse. A little vinegar or lemon is implied rather than stated.
- French potato ballsPotato scooped into small spheres with a Parisienne cutter and deep-fried. Blanch them in 300F fat until tender, then finish at 375F for color.
- "6 crabs"A stray yield line that does not belong to this recipe; it may have been carried over from a crab recipe elsewhere in the book, though that is inference. As written this recipe serves one to two people per lobster.
Planking was one of the signature American restaurant tricks of the 1890s and 1900s: food cooked and served on a heated hardwood board, the wood absorbing juices and lending a faint scorched-timber aroma. It is usually traced to Northeastern shad and later to steak, and it appears in home cookbooks of the period alongside the spread of gas broilers, though that connection is inference rather than documented cause. Loose-leaf cook books were sold as expandable systems, with pages grouped by section so a cook could add or reorder them — which may be how a yield line for crabs ends up stranded at the foot of a lobster recipe. The garnish here is period stagecraft: the potato balls and lettuce cups exist so the plank arrives at the table looking like hotel work.