No. 1040

Lobster Roasted on the Spit

Homard Roti a la Broche

Kill a large six-pound lobster by plunging it into boiling water for three minutes, lay it on the spit without trussing, only fastening the claws together with an iron skewer, or else attach it to the spit cradle and lay it in front of a good fire, turning it around while besprinkling with a brush dipped in butter and lemon juice; salt it while it is very hot; pour over a good mirepoix with wine (No. 419) and aromatics. A lobster weighing six pounds requires forty minutes cooking, and must be besprinkled quite frequently; when the meat is done, the shell should be softened. Remove the lobster from the spit, dress it on a dish and serve separately a shallot sauce finished with some butter: serve it in a sauce-boat, or replace it by a half-glaze reduced with white wine, into which has been added the juice of a lemon or orange.

← No. 1039 Lobster, Provencal Style Lobster No. 1041 Lobster a la Rougemont →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes an open hearth, a turning spit and a kitchen that can produce a mirepoix and a half-glaze from cross-references elsewhere in the book. The method translates cleanly to a rotisserie or a covered grill, provided you keep the basting constant.

The hinge: constant bastingNothing here protects the meat except the film of butter and lemon juice brushed on as the shell turns. Let it dry out for even a few minutes over live fire and the tail goes stringy. Keep a bowl of melted butter with lemon juice at the side and brush every three or four minutes.
A six-pound lobsterLegal size limits and market practice mean most shops now sell 1 to 2 lb lobsters; 6 lb specimens exist but must usually be ordered. Two 2-3 lb lobsters roast more evenly and finish in roughly half the stated time.
The three-minute plungeThis is not really cooking; the recipe is explicit that it is how the animal is killed before it goes on the spit. Some modern kitchens instead use a knife through the head first. Either way the lobster goes to the fire barely blanched.
Forty minutesThat figure is for a 6 lb lobster in front of an open fire. Judge by the meat, not the clock: tail meat is done at about 135-140F, and a 2 lb lobster will get there in 15-20 minutes on a rotisserie. Overcooked lobster is the usual failure.
"The shell should be softened"What Ranhofer intends by this is not clear from the text. Whatever it means, do not keep roasting in pursuit of a soft shell.
Mirepoix with wine (No. 419)A mirepoix of this period is generally diced root vegetables with lean ham or bacon, sweated in butter with herbs and moistened with wine; see No. 419 for Ranhofer's own proportions. Poured over the lobster during roasting it acts more as a seasoning bath than as a sauce.
The saucesThe shallot sauce indicated here is finished with butter, so shallots reduced in wine or vinegar and mounted with butter is a reasonable reading, though the recipe does not spell it out. The alternative, a half-glaze reduced with white wine and sharpened with lemon or orange juice, calls for demi-glace; a well-reduced veal or shellfish stock stands in.
Spit and skewerAn iron skewer through the claws keeps them from flailing loose as the muscle contracts. On a kettle grill, run two parallel skewers through the whole lobster from head to tail so it cannot spin free, and cook over indirect heat.
YieldA 6 lb lobster serves four generously as a main course; the recipe has it dressed whole on a dish with the sauce sent to table separately in a sauce-boat.

A Little History

This is No. 1040 in Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the enormous compendium set down after some three decades as chef of Delmonico's in New York. Whatever its origins, the method carried well into an American kitchen where a giant lobster turning before the fire made exactly the kind of theatrical service Delmonico's traded on. The French title, homard rôti à la broche, and the cross-references to numbered mirepoix and sauce recipes are characteristic of the book, which is organised less as a cookbook than as a professional reference for cooks who already knew the grammar and needed the vocabulary. By the time Ranhofer wrote, the open roasting hearth was disappearing from restaurant kitchens in favour of closed ranges, so the recipe reads as a record of a method already on its way out.