This morning I am joined by Luke Holden,
who just opened Seattle's newest
lobster roll shop and of course
it's called Luke's Lobster.
And Luke himself is here this
morning to tell us all about it.
Welcome to New Day Northwest, my friend.
Thanks for having me.
Well, we are delighted to talk about it.
So here in the PNW we are
familiar with fresh crab,
but not so much fresh lobster.
So we are serving a fresh Dungeness role from
our friends over at Fathom Seafood Nice,
which is been a a major hit in some of the.
Pre opening events. Yeah,
very grateful for your local seafood,
but we are bringing to town is a
sustainable traceable back to this source.
Traceable back to the source. I like
that main lobster. Wonderful.
And So what I'm going to do today is
I'm going to show you how to take
a live lobster and break it down,
cook it, break it down and make
a main style lobster roll.
I'm so excited about it.
However, I know that we've
already named this guy here,
this is, this is Joseph,
named after our producer.
He's getting pardoned, right?
He's gonna get pardoned.
Alright.
Well his friend may not be,
but typically how long does
it take to cook a lobster?
So 8 to 8 to 10 minutes for a lobster
this size the rule of thumb is is
around 10 minutes per pound of lobster.
OK and these are these are just
over a pound lobsters are big
voice. Alright. So we're are we
going to do that today or are we just
gonna go to what we've already made.
So we're gonna we're gonna magic
trick take this live lobster.
It just got steamed in in
salt water right. OK then.
Took it out, we chilled it.
Chilled it and here we are.
Ohh. So after you steam the lobster,
there's important to chill it.
Yes, you wanna stop the cooking
process immediately. Got it?
Alright, you're gonna overcook the meat.
What you're looking for is an
internal temperature of 165 degrees.
The coldest part of the lobster when
you steam it is the body cavity.
So if you take a thermometer and put
it into the tail and you're greater
than 165 degrees, it's food safe.
And you if you reach,
you've reached optimal quality. OK,
I'm going to tell you.
Right now, This is why I'm gonna
come to Luke Lobster, though,
because this seems like a lot.
But how do you get this lobster
to look like that over there?
Let me show you. OK, so when you're
breaking down a full lobster,
the first thing you do and it's
like using a knife, you know,
don't get bloody cut away from your buddy.
I'm going to pull the tail this way
so that you don't get any juice on
it. Don't get bloody cut away
from your body. That's genius.
I've actually never heard that before.
You take the. So you snap the tail off, OK?
Very easy to roll it off. Then.
The trick is to then take the flippers.
OK. Bend them towards you
and then towards you. Yeah.
OK and then you're actually going to take
your finger and push it through the tail.
Oh, OK all right.
And then the meat will come right at the end.
All right. So you don't actually have to
get into like breaking the carpet. OK
and then you don't use the green stuff.
So these are female lobsters.
And these are, these are actually,
it's actually the row,
the undeveloped eggs from the lobster.
Interesting.
OK, so you take the backstrap off,
the back strap off, clean it.
OK you want that backstrap.
Super yummy. OK.
Especially when dipped in butter.
All right,
then you're taking this is
actually some of the end trail,
so you take this all out.
OK?
And our
female lobsters typically
bigger than male lobsters.
Tails are bigger and the claws are smaller.
Sense the tails are gonna
feel that myself sometimes
when a loftur is pregnant and carrying eggs,
the eggs are on the bottom side of the shell.
OK, so the tails end up being a little
bit wider so that they I see so they can.
That makes sense.
All right all right let me grab.
So after you take the tail off,
OK, which is not something we
typically use in our lobster rolls,
you don't use the the tail too much.
The meat ends up being a little
bit sweeter and tender from
the claws and the knuckles, OK.
So generally speaking,
that's the meat that we use
for our lobster rolls, OK.
Tails typically go to customers
of ours like Whole Foods,
get a whole array of some of our
so you don't waste anything
like everything you use,
you source ethically and then you're.
Selling it to someone else to use as well.
We take the shell and we actually run it
through a process where we we crush it,
dry it, dehydrate it, and then sell
it as a as a soil amendment product.
Oh my God. We take the blood.
The blood goes into a healing cream.
That's amazing.
Students from the University of Maine
developed to actually help with that.
Help people suffer from eczema.
So there's almost no product of the
lobster that that doesn't get utilized.
Good for you. I'm so happy to hear that.
Alright. So how you crack that open?
OK. So take the sorry,
I'm going without speaking.
So we take the claw, yeah, twist it, OK.
At the joint. OK,
then you're taking the arm and the knuckle.
Piper. Extending it. OK, pull it apart.
OK and then the thumb the same way.
Pull it back. All right.
And when you pull it out,
what you're looking for is this perfectly
rounded filament and this piece here.
OK. If you have this,
then you know it's not left in the inside
because you don't want to eat that.
You don't want to eat that. Gotcha.
You're like an expert at this.
I've been doing this my entire life.
You're welcome.
From Maine, I would imagine.
Third generation lobster.
And my father was actually the first licensed
lobster processor in the state of Maine.
So state. Amazing.
So I grew up.
On boats on the working waterfront.
Had my own commercial license.
And in high school. Wow.
In high school, Yep. Unreal.
And then so these are hard shell officers,
so give it a little crack with a cracker.
If you've got a knife, whack it on the
edge and then you should be able to.
Brendan, Pop it out.
Exactly.
OK.
And because you've got that filament,
you know that there's nothing
else. There's nothing there. Yeah.
We only have about 2 minutes left.
So I wanna get to making
some sandwiches here.
That is fascinating how there's
so much technique in actually
taking apart the lobster and taking
it apart in a way that is good.
So now we're going to make the lobster roll,
which is a famous main tradition.
That's right.
And we're glad that you're bringing it here.
So what are you putting on this
now? So this is a New England top split bond.
You. The sides of the roller shades, yeah.
That enables you to put a little
butter on both sides, yes.
Which when you alley heat on a griddle,
you get a beautiful toasted exterior, right.
So the bun is really just a vessel.
Thank you. I got you.
Is just a vessel to serve our
super high quality seafood.
Heard that you generally eat gluten free.
You brought me a gluten free raw.
Appreciate that. Yeah. Which
is nice that you also offer
that there at Luke lobster too.
It ends up being a super popular option.
OK, all of our roles are made to
order so you can get any permutation.
You get our lobster, Dungeness shrimp.
You can get it with mayonnaise without.
I like mayonnaise with our
seasoning without. OK, so
once you get that guy, nice and toasty.
You get it nice and toasty.
What you're doing is,
and I might just jump ahead here.
Yeah, go right ahead.
There's no rules on new day.
Perfect is take your knife,
put a little bit of mayonnaise
on the inside, yeah.
As much as you want,
but we generally just
put a little little bit,
then we put a quarter pound of our
fresh lobster meat inside the bun.
Yeah.
That's, that's a lot of meat.
Yeah. And it actually comes
in a 6 ounce option as well,
which is a super healthy portion.
OK is that. That's. Yes.
OK, yeah, even more.
And then what is this in the shaker here?
So this is our secret seasoning.
It's not like Old Bay. What is it? It's not.
It's a secret. It's a secret.
But principally celery salt,
thyme, oregano, OK, pepper.
So a little dash of our secret seasoning.
We put a little bit of butter on top.
I love that the butter is.
Like a big part of this
butter is a huge everything's
better with butter.
And then once you've got butter on top,
a little pinch of.
Or squeeze of lemon juice and
like this is the perfect what
main style like lobster roll.
That is beautiful.
My mouth is watering right now.
I just wanna bite into it.
This is so delicious looking.
I'm gonna OK just let me get a
little bit of the lobster before
I please just so I can. So
grand openings today we're at 110 Pike St.
Martin Pike.
Oh my gosh, that's so good.
That's seasoning is still licious.
Thank you. It's a secret though.
Alright. Well, thank you so much Luke.
I appreciate you coming down here.
Thanks for brand lobster to Seattle.
Thanks for having such a beautiful
and thoughtful and ethical way.
That's amazing. Alright.
Well, still to come on new day.