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Soup

Bisque of Lobster

A creamy lobster soup made with lobster, tomatoes, cream, consommé, butter, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lobster and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,050 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Bisque of Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, combine the cream, consommé, tomatoes, salt, pepper, and cayenne.

  2. Boil the mixture, stirring with a spoon.

  3. Press the mixture through a sieve back into the saucepan.

  4. Add the butter and return to the heat.

  5. Once it boils again, serve immediately.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Lobster + creamtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Lobster + buttertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky body to the bisque.
Consommé
Provides the liquid base and savory flavor of the bisque.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and color, balancing the richness of the cream.
Butter
Adds fat for a rounder mouthfeel and a glossy finish.
Boiled lobster
Supplies the main seafood flavor and sweetness of the bisque.

The step that matters

Once it boils again, serve immediately.. Cream-based soups can separate or turn grainy if boiled too hard or for too long after the butter goes in. Bringing it just back to a boil and serving right away keeps it smooth.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, cream, pepper, butter):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, cream, pepper, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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