So today’s tip is: Make your own lobster rolls. Make a lobster roll feast an annual family summer event, with iced tea and potato chips. If you can afford enough lobster to invite guests, have them bring the beer and the desserts.

To start you off on the right foot, the great Boston chef Jasper White shares his famous lobster roll recipe with us.

The recipe can be found in his book, “The Summer Shack Cookbook: The Complete Guide to Shore Food.”

Chef Jasper’s lobster roll recipe is below.

Chef White also dispenses advice on the proper way to shuck clams, pick apart a lobster and scale a fish. The Summer Shack is Chef White’s casual restaurant mini-chain, with several year-round locations in Massachusetts.

Pick up a copy of the cookbook for yourself or as a house gift for summer weekend hosts.
 
 
JASPER WHITE’S CLASSIC MAINE LOBSTER ROLL RECIPE

Making lobster rolls at home is easy and a guaranteed hit with family and guests alike. To properly grill the rolls, you’ll need to find real New England-style hot dog rolls, which are trimmed on the sides so they can be buttered and griddled. If you can’t find them, you can buy slightly oversized rolls and trim them with a serrated (bread) knife to create a flat grilling surface.

For this recipe, you will need a mixing bowl for the lobster salad and a 10-inch skillet, preferably heavy cast iron, to grill the rolls. If you have paper roll holders (known as hot dog trays), they are quite handy for holding the rolls as you stuff and serve them. You can buy paper hot dog trays online.

You can mix the lobster salad up to 4 hours ahead. Once the lobster salad has been made, creating the lobster rolls is quick and easy.
 
Ingredients For 4 Servings

 
> The difference between rolls and rolls.

Preparation

1. HEAT a 10-inch skillet over medium heat. Spread each of the hot dog rolls with 1 tablespoon of butter (half on each side). Place the buttered rolls into the hot dry pan and toast without moving, until golden brown on one side, about a minute. Turn and cook the other side, about 1 minute more. Remove from heat.

2. OPEN the rolls and place them in a paper holder or on a small plate. Place a lettuce leaf on one side of the center, inside the roll. Spoon the lobster salad evenly among them. Serve with pickles, and potato chips on the side.
 
 
LOBSTER SALAD RECIPE

Ingredients

[1] Jasper White’s famous lobster roll (photos #1 and #4 © W. W. Norton & Company).

[2] Combine two favorites—lobster roll and BLT—into this (duh) Lobster Roll BLT. First add shredded lettuce, then line the sides of the roll with bacon and tomato, then fill with lobster salad (photo © Tommy Bahama).

[3] Caught, steamed, and ready to be made into lobster salad (photo © Meritt Thomas | Unsplash).

[4] A gift idea for summer weekend hosts and hostesses. Photo courtesy W. W. Norton Company.

1. If you are using live lobsters, steam them until fully cooked and then allow them to cool to room temperature. Use a cleaver to crack and remove the meat from the claws, knuckles and tails.

2. Remove the cartilage from the claws and the intestine from the tails of the cooked meat. Cut the meat into ½ to ¾ inch dice. You may pick all the meat from the carcass and add it to the meat or freeze the carcass for soup or broth.

3. Place the cucumber in a colander for at least 5 minutes to drain the excess liquid.

4. Combine the lobster, cucumber, and mayonnaise. If the salad is to be served within the hour, add the scallions. Season with a bit more pepper if needed; it is unlikely that salt will be needed. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Makes 2 cups, which serves 4 or 5 for sandwiches or as a light entrée.
 
 
EDITOR’S NOTE

If you like more sophisticated flavors, don’t hesitate to build on the recipe. Our favorite additions include:

 
Try adding your favorite flavors for a “gourmet” lobster roll.
 
 
ABOUT THE COOKBOOK

The recipe collection includes 200 easy-to-make classic seafood dishes and non-seafood favorites. We’re particularly fond of the creamy Cape Cod clam chowder and scallops wrapped in smoky bacon.

Chef White also dispenses advice on the proper way to shuck clams, pick apart a lobster and scale a fish. The Summer Shack is Chef White’s casual restaurant mini-chain, with several year-round locations in Massachusetts.

Pick up a copy of the cookbook for yourself or as a house gift for summer weekend hosts.
 
 
 

The three-ounce rounds of peppermint ice cream are dipped in a dark chocolate coating (coating = some vegetable oil is added so the chocolate will adhere to the ice cream). The ice cream is a lot less intense than the York Peppermint Pattie. This will please people who like just a bit o’ mint.

The ice cram bar doesn’t have the candy’s depth of chocolate coating flavor, either. But it certainly is refreshing, and we can’t complain: It’s tough to find any type of peppermint ice cream. Our favorite flavors, chocolate chip mint and cookie mint, seem to have disappeared from stores in our area.

CURIOSER & CURIOSER

Although the box declares that the bars are made from Peppermint Light Ice Cream (see photo above), the small print underneath it says, “This is not a light food.” It goes on to explain that the light ice cream has 75% less fat than “a range of full fat ice creams.”

Hmm. So the ice cream is lower in fat, but not the bar as a whole? The whole bar has 170 calories but the box explains that the light ice cream portion is 80 calories. So the thin chocolate coating has more calories than the much larger lump of ice cream?

If this information is meant to help consumers understand what they’re getting, we think that a second explanation is needed to clarify the first explanation.
 
 
PATTIE VS. PATTY

Second, the ice cream box never mentions the word “patty” or “pattie.” Wouldn’t calling them “York Peppermint Ice Cream Patties” better leverage the York Peppermint Pattie brand?

And what about “pattie?”

Whether it’s candy, meat or veggies, you may have noticed patty and pattie used in different places. The plural for both is patties.

Dictionary.com doesn’t recognize the word “pattie.” Merriam-Webster.com at least brings you to “patty.” The word, by the way, derives from the French pâté, for paste (i.e., a mix of finely-ground ingredients; pasta also means paste and in French, pâté refers to a meat loaf as well as the more rare ground goose or duck liver pâté). “Patty” seems to have entered the English language around 1710.

Patty, pattie or bar, the six pieces disappeared faster than we would like to admit.
 
 
YORK PEPPERMINT PATTIE HISTORY

According to a company history in Wikipedia, the York Peppermint Pattie was first produced by Henry C. Kessler, owner of the York Cone Company, in 1940. The company was named for its location: York, Pennsylvania.

In the annals of corporate acquisitions, in 1972 the York Cone Company was acquired by Peter Paul. In 1978, Peter Paul merged with Cadbury Schweppes. In 1988 the Hershey Foods Corporation acquired the U.S. operations of Cadbury Schweppes.

The York Peppermint Pattie we know is different from Henry Kessler’s: the mint centers are only semi hard. In February 2009, Hershey closed the Reading, Pennsylvania plant that made York Peppermint Patties, 5th Avenue and Zagnut candy bars, and Jolly Rancher hard candies. Production was moved to a new factory the company built in Monterey, Mexico.

Cheesecake Pops are irresistible and fun.
Photo courtesy Le Chateaux.

From the moment Burke created these pops, some eight years ago, we were in love with them: a favorite dessert turned into a bite-size sphere-on-a-stick.

There are three varieties of creamy cheese cake centers, coated in chocolate and dipped in garnishes:

Each order contains an assortment of the flavors. The pops come frozen and thaw in 30 minutes.

If Dad doesn’t want to hoard them all, you can serve the Cheesecake Pops for dessert on Father’s Day; or simply hand them to guests as they walk in the door, to get the party started.

 
David Burke Cheesecake Pops have been a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week. Here’s our review.

Using a set of two grooved wooden “butter paddles”—an item so archaic it isn’t even sold on Amazon.com—she cut chunks of butter from the stick and paddled them into perfectly round balls, nicely patterned by the grooves.

The butter balls were set on the table in a lovely porcelain dish. Those wishing butter (and in those days, we all did) helped themselves to a ball or two.

When we started to host dinner parties, we had no paddles and needed to find an alternative. Our solution: butter ramekins.

Perhaps it didn’t have the wow factor of those golden orbs of paddled butter, but it was much faster to make.
 
 
FANCY BUTTER RECIPE

All you need are butter, a ramekin, a spatula and a fresh herb garnish. Then:

1. Soften 2 sticks of butter until they are malleable.

3. With a sharp knife, cut a crosshatch of grooves onto the top of the butter. If the butter is too soft, stick it in the fridge for 10 minutes.

4. Garnish with a rosemary sprig or other fresh herbs, such as two short chive “plumes” inseted vertically, or a rim of finely-minced chives. You can also press a single large parsley or cilantro leaf into the top, and/or sprinkle some Hawaiian red sea salt (alaea), coarse pink sea salt, tri-color whole peppercorns or coarse-ground black pepper.
 
 
MORE BUTTERY GOODNESS

Find butter tips and recipes for flavored butters (compound butters) in our Butter Section.

Check out all the different types of butter.

How many types of butter have you had? See our Butter Glossary.
  

The sweet and savory flavors are not only delicious; they’re healthier snacks, as well (popcorn is a whole grain).

The business began as a passion for “Crunch Daddy” Dan Bazis, who started out simply trying to improve the recipe for kettle corn.

He then envisioned the potential for a gourmet popcorn business, and spent several years exploring flavors, refining recipes, sourcing ingredients and equipment and creating a website—all the while “navigating the tangled web of regulations that govern the operation of a small business like mine.”

We think he’s done a great job, and you don’t need a gift occasion to enjoy his wares. Buy them for yourself, as well as for the dads in your life.

TERRIFIC GOURMET POPCORN FLAVORS

Maple Bacon Crunch popcorn: It’s maplebacalicious! Photo by Elvira Kalviste | THE NIBBLE.

 
We loved them all!

EDITOR’S NOTE 2020: We regret to report that Crunch Daddy is no longer operational.

Give them as party favors, send them to kids at camp. Enjoy more popcorn, the better-for-you snack.