Name: Bisque of Crayfish, Crab, or Lobster
Ingredients: 50 crayfish or 1 lobster or 1 crab; 1 tablespoon anchovy sauce; ½ cup sherry; a pinch of cayenne pepper; ¼ teaspoon salt; ½ pound fresh butter; 1 pound rice; 1 quart well-flavored mutton stock; ½ pint cream

Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Bisque of Crayfish, Crab, or Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat.
Add the crayfish, lobster, or crab and sauté for a few minutes.
Stir in the anchovy sauce, sherry, cayenne pepper, and salt.
Add the rice and mutton stock, then bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer until the rice is tender.
Stir in the cream just before serving.

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.

Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Crayfish + anchovytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together61 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Crayfish + saucetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together195 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Anchovy + muttontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together170 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Crayfish + buttertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together343 recipes

Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter: Enriches the base with fat and carries the flavour of the shellfish.
Rice: Cooks down into the soup, thickening it and giving it body.
Cream: Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture at the end.
Crayfish, lobster, or crab: Provides the main shellfish flavour of the bisque.
Mutton stock: Forms the liquid base that cooks the rice and carries the flavour.

The step that matters

Stir in the cream just before serving. Cream added too early can be boiled or simmered for a long time, which may cause it to separate or taste dull. Adding it off the heat keeps it smooth and fresh.

“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.

Mutton Broth292 recipes

Rice Fritters84 recipes

Haricot Mutton59 recipes

Mutton Soup56 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Bisque of Crayfish, Crab, or Lobster