180 feet! Shediac takes back title for world's longest lobster roll
Gail Harding | CBC News | Posted: July 5, 2017 11:23 PM | Last Updated: July 5, 2017
New record beats P.E.I.'s 122 feet, contested New Hampshire record of over 159 feet
Shediac took back the title for having the world's longest lobster roll on Wednesday with the finished product measuring 180 feet and two inches.
Organizers Mario Savoie and Pierre Cormier said they beat a recently set, but contested New Hampshire lobster roll record of almost 160 feet.
New Hampshire claimed they made a role measuring 159 feet and six inches but Savoie said it was not made of one single piece of bread, so technically it doesn't count.
Savoie said they originally planned to make their lobster roll 150 feet long, recognizing Canada's 150th birthday, but decided rather than contest New Hampshire's claim, they would just beat it.
The new record also beats the one set in 2016 by the P.E.I. Fishermen's Association, which created a roll measuring 122 feet.
$5,000 worth of lobster
This is the fourth year a record breaking lobster roll was made in Shediac, coinciding with the start of the annual Shediac Lobster Festival.
The roll contained 125 pounds of lobster – valued at $5,000 – eight heads of lettuce, and almost 10 litres of mayonnaise.
It took over 10 hours and 50 volunteers to bake the long roll of bread, which was further complicated by the oven which could only bake five feet of bread at a time.
Volunteers had to pull the bread through by hand, to allow the next five feet to bake.
The first year of the contest, the roll measured 72 feet, then 85 feet, and then 106 feet, before P.E.I. took the record.
The role was also part of a fundraising event that kicked of the 68th Shediac Lobster Festival.
A ticket to enjoy six inches of lobster roll was $20 and all 350 tickets were sold.
The lobster festival will finish on Sunday when Shediac's Main Street closes down for 1,000 lobster dinners.