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Cbayfish Soup

A soup made with crayfish, anchovies, lobster spawn, and a French roll crumb, simmered in fish stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Crayfish and lobster work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 100 recipes. Both carry octanal, which smells fat, soap. The science ↓

Cbayfish Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the shells

  1. Shell the crayfish.

  2. Set the fish aside between two plates.

  3. Pound the shells in a mortar with the butter and anchovies until well beaten.

Make the soup

  1. Add 1 pint of stock and simmer for 30 minutes.

  2. Strain through a fine sieve.

  3. Add the remaining stock.

  4. Add the crumb of the roll and bring to a boil.

  5. Rub through a tumbler with the lobster spawn.

  6. Add the fish but do not let the soup boil after straining.

  7. Adjust seasoning if necessary.

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. Crayfish + lobstertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together100 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  2. Crayfish + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together343 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  3. Butter + fishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Crayfish + fishtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together90 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  5. Lobster + fishtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together326 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Crayfish
Provides the main flavour and the tender fish added at the end.
Butter
Carries the flavour of the pounded shells and adds richness and fat to the soup.
Anchovies
Adds a salty, savoury depth that rounds out the shellfish flavour.
French roll crumb
Thickens the soup slightly and gives it body.
Lobster-spawn
Adds colour and a rich, roe-like flavour when rubbed through the soup.

The step that matters

Add the fish but do not let the soup boil after straining. Crayfish flesh is delicate and turns tough and rubbery if it is overcooked, and boiling can also break the smooth texture of the strained soup.

“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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