Halved lobster

Form

In the shell

Typical weight

250–450 g

Typical thickness

30–50 mm

Cut

Not a cut of anything

The shell does the same job it does for a prawn — it insulates the underside and holds the moisture — but with a lobster it also holds the shape, so a half is a rigid tray of meat that can be lifted, basted and served without ever leaving its own shell. What makes it hard is the margin. Lobster meat goes from translucent to opaque to rubbery across a very narrow band, and there is no fat and no connective tissue to buy any time at the far end; a minute too long is the difference between the best thing on the table and something that has to be chewed. It is also a genuinely large mass over a small area, so the tail finishes well before the claws, and the claws are usually dealt with separately. BBQHQ publishes no duration — none of its seafood sources covers lobster — and states the endpoint the shellfish evidence it does hold gives: opaque and firm, and off the heat immediately.

It came out tough

Prawns, scallops, squid, lobster or octopus came out rubbery — 3 distinguishable causes.

Cooling, keeping and reheating what is left is general guidance for barbecue leftovers. Neither UK authority publishes anything specific to halved lobster, and BBQHQ does not invent a distinction they do not make.

• The cooking rates BBQHQ holds for fish are written for 'fish' as a category rather than for this species. Applying them here would be a guess about how this particular fish behaves over fire.

• No institutional publisher has been found giving a grilling duration for this shellfish. The visual cues published here are what the available sources actually support.

What we know we’re missing records what was searched for each of these, and what would settle it.