How to Make the Winning Lobster Roll

This article originally appeared in the July/August 2017 issue of Yankee Magazine and may have been slightly updated for inclusion in this collection. 

A lobster roll is a simple construction. Take some meat, a little mayo or melted butter, and a split-top bun, buttered and griddled. But as our exhaustive search for the best roll proved, good technique and quality ingredients can make the difference between a stellar roll and a mediocre one.

For the ultimate recipe, I went straight to our winning lobster shack, McLoons, in South Thomaston, Maine. Bree Douty is the general manager of this family business, which includes the lobster shack, the wharf next door (one of the oldest working buying stations in Maine), and a wholesale business out of Portland. “The secret to the quality of the meat is cooking the lobsters in small-enough batches that the meat can be cooked, immediately iced (so it doesn’t overcook), and picked, all in a short time frame,” Douty says. “Keeping the meat iced ensures that it stays fresh and juicy. And in summer, we cook mostly soft-shell lobsters. They’re much sweeter and more tender than hard-shell.”

GET THE RECIPE: McLoons Lobster Roll Recipe

Amy Traverso

Amy Traverso is the senior food editor at Yankee and cohost of the public television series Weekends with Yankee, a coproduction with GBH. Previously, she was food editor at Boston magazine and an associate food editor at Sunset magazine. Her work has also been published in The Boston Globe, Saveur, and Travel & Leisure, and she has appeared on Hallmark Home & Family, The Martha Stewart Show, Throwdown with Bobby Flay, and Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. Amy is the author of The Apple Lover’s Cookbook, which was a finalist for the Julia Child Award for best first-time author and won an IACP Cookbook Award in the “American” category.

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