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Bisque of Lobster

A creamy lobster bisque made with lobster flesh, stock, milk, cream, arrowroot, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Arrowroot and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 553 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Bisque of Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Remove the flesh from the lobster and cut it into small dice. Set aside.

  2. Combine the washed claws and shells with the fish stock and seasoning.

Make the stock

  1. Simmer for 20 minutes.

  2. Add the ragged pieces and soft inside part of the lobster, and simmer for an additional 15 minutes.

  3. Strain the mixture.

  4. Thicken the strained stock with arrowroot.

  5. Rub the lobster spawn through a fine sieve and add it to the soup.

  6. Bring to a boil.

Finish and serve

  1. Heat the milk and cream.

  2. Strain the hot soup over it.

  3. Add a squeeze of lemon juice to taste.

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. Arrowroot + lemontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together553 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  3. Fish + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  4. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Fish + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,889 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the sweet, rich meat and shell flavor that defines the bisque.
Fish stock
Forms the liquid base and carries the flavor of the shells.
Milk and cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety body to the soup.
Arrowroot
Thickens the stock so the soup has body without becoming cloudy or pasty.
Lobster spawn
Adds color and a rich, concentrated lobster flavor to the soup.

The step that matters

Thicken the strained stock with arrowroot. Arrowroot thickens best when the liquid is hot and gently simmering, and it loses thickening power if boiled for long. Adding it to stock that is too cool or overheated can leave lumps or a thin result.

Swap the arrowroot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, fish, milk, cream, lemon):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Arrowrootthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, fish, milk, cream, lemon. 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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