Maine or Connecticut lobster roll: cold with mayo or warm with butter

A Maine lobster roll is chilled lobster in a light mayonnaise dressing. A Connecticut lobster roll is warm lobster in melted butter, with no mayo. In the Mosey app, Settle it puts the two side by side with the question "Which lobster roll is best?" and lets people in the US pick one.

What is the difference between a Maine and a Connecticut lobster roll?

Temperature and dressing. Maine-style rolls use cold lobster with a light mayo base, often with lemon, celery or herbs. Connecticut-style rolls use warm lobster tossed in melted butter, finished with salt and pepper and sometimes lemon juice.

Both usually come in a toasted, split-top roll. Some Maine versions add a leaf of butter lettuce to keep the bread from going soggy.

A third version is worth knowing about. Some places serve the lobster at room temperature with a little mayo and a lot of butter, and call it whatever they like. The vote uses the two classic definitions, so pick the one your own taste is closest to.

Which one tastes like what?

One common description is that the cold Maine roll tastes brinier and cleaner, because the dressing is light and the lobster is chilled. The warm Connecticut roll is more tender and, because of the butter, richer.

Neither is wrong. If you like a sandwich that tastes like the sea, start with Maine. If you want something closer to a hot dish in a bun, start with Connecticut.

Which suits which day?

Many people find the cold Maine roll better on a hot day, outside, with chips. The warm Connecticut roll suits a cool evening, when a hot buttery sandwich is welcome. That is a preference, not a rule, and nothing stops you having either all year.

Where did the Connecticut roll come from?

Several food writers trace the warm, buttered version to a restaurant in Milford, Connecticut, in the 1920s. That restaurant has closed. Treat the date as the usual story rather than a certificate, because food histories are rarely tidy.

How do you order one without a surprise?

Ask which style the place makes before you order, because many menus just say lobster roll. Ask how much lobster is in it and whether it is priced by the day, since lobster prices move. And ask whether it comes with fries or chips, so you are not buying two sides by accident.

If you are not sure, order one of each to share. It is the fairest way to settle the argument at your own table.

What else should you check?

Check whether the roll is made with claw and knuckle meat or only tail, whether the bread is toasted to order, and whether the butter or mayo is added at the time. Small differences like these change a roll more than the name of the style does.

If you have a shellfish allergy, tell the kitchen before you order. Lobster is a shellfish, and kitchens that cook it often handle other shellfish nearby.

How does the lobster roll vote work in Mosey?

The question is "Which lobster roll is best?" with two sides: Maine, cold with mayo, and Connecticut, warm with butter. The card is on Home when your market has debates. You pick a side, and you can change it later by tapping the other. You get one vote per debate.

You can read without an account but need to sign in to vote. After you pick, you can see how your country voted, and you can share your pick as an image.

When does the result show?

When at least three counted votes are in for the country. Until then the app says there are not enough votes yet. With two sides, the shares are two whole numbers that add up to 100, and a dead heat shows as too close to call.

Counted votes come from real customer accounts that are not shadow-banned, and they are kept by country.

A vote from a single person is never a public result, which is why the floor exists. With only two sides it is easy to see how a handful of votes could swing a number, so the app waits for the minimum before it shows anything.

Does the vote say which restaurant makes the best roll?

No. The two sides are styles, and the app states plainly that this is what Mosey diners voted and that it is not a ranking of any place. For a particular place, look at the ratings people leave for its dishes.

A lobster roll is a single dish, which suits ratings of the dish itself. If you rate the roll you had on Mosey, the next person looking at that place can see whether the roll is worth ordering, which a debate about styles cannot tell them.

Is the lobster roll vote open outside the US?

No. It runs in the US only. Elsewhere the card does not show.

The card also does not appear if your market has no debates, and a vote sent for a debate that is not open in your market is refused as not found. That is deliberate. Each market's result is made of that market's votes only.

How this works in the app: Settle it.

More guides to read next:

• New York or Chicago pizza: the real differences and how to vote
• Rate and rank US states for food travel in the Mosey app
• Thanksgiving and big game specials: how to find them in the Mosey app

More in the US food guides and the ranked lists of places.