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Broiled Lobster, Plain
Procure three live lobsters one and a quarter pounds each; cut off the claws, crack the large ones with a cleaver, then split the bodies in two; clean off the heads and arrange the lobster halves on a double broiler. Season evenly with a teaspoon salt and half teaspoon paprika. Baste with a tablespoon oil and broil on a brisk fire, cut part upward, for ten minutes; remove and set in the oven for ten minutes more.
When the lobsters are placed on the broiler have the claws on a tin and bake in the oven for twenty minutes. Remove both, arrange on a large hot dish, decorate with six pieces lemon and parsley greens and serve with half gill melted butter separately.
A straightforward broiled lobster written for a coal range with an open grate; the only real translation work is heat sources, timing and the old liquid measures.
- Half a gill of butterA gill is half a cup, so half a gill is about 4 tablespoons — a quarter cup of melted butter for three lobsters. Serve it warm in a separate dish, as directed, rather than poured over.
- "A double broiler"This is a hinged wire grill basket that clamps the halves flat between two grids, not a double boiler. A sturdy wire rack set close under a modern broiler element does the same job; the point is to hold the shells level so the juices stay in the cavity.
- "A brisk fire" and the ovenA brisk fire means the hottest part of the grate — a preheated broiler on high, or a charcoal fire you cannot hold a hand over. The oven stage is unspecified in the original; a hot oven, in the 400-425F range, is a reasonable modern equivalent.
- Total cooking timeTen minutes under the broiler plus ten in the oven will overcook a 1¼-lb lobster into cotton. Split raw lobster of that size needs roughly 8 to 12 minutes total under a hot broiler, shell side first and then cut side up, until the tail meat is opaque and just firm.
- ClawsTwenty minutes for cracked claws is likewise generous. They are the thickest part and do want longer than the tails, but check at about 12 minutes — the meat should pull cleanly from the shell without shrinking away from it.
- "Clean off the heads"Once split, lift out the gritty stomach sac behind the eyes and the dark intestinal vein running down the tail. The green tomalley and any coral may be left in place; both were commonly eaten.
- Dispatching the lobsterChill the lobsters thoroughly, then drive a heavy knife straight down through the head behind the eyes before splitting lengthwise. This is faster and cleaner than working with a fully active animal.
- YieldThree lobsters give six halves — three generous main courses or six lighter plates. The teaspoon of salt and half teaspoon of paprika are for all six halves, so season sparingly per piece.
Broiled lobster was among the plainest of the fashionable lobster dishes in American hotel and restaurant cooking of the early 1900s, standing at the opposite end of the menu from the buttered, sherried, cream-bound preparations — Newburg, Thermidor, a la Americaine — that books of this kind also carried. The word "plain" in the title is doing real work: it signals no sauce beyond melted butter and lemon. The small size specified, a pound and a quarter apiece, belongs to a period when lobster was still plentiful along the Northeast coast; the same books that call for lobster by the pair also treat it as a chafing-dish staple for late suppers. The instruction to broil cut side up and then finish in the oven suits the coal range, where the open grate gave fierce, uneven top heat and the closed oven was the more reliable way to carry the thick claw meat through.