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Fish Bisque

A creamy bisque made with white fish, stock, milk, and crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fish Bisque

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Heat the stock in a pot until it boils.

  2. Stir in the minced fish, pepper, salt, parsley, and butter.

  3. Combine the scalding milk with the white roux and pounded cracker.

  4. Boil the mixture once.

  5. After the fish has cooked for five minutes, stir the thickened milk mixture into the fish.

  6. Optionally add a well-beaten egg to the milk and crumbs before serving.

  7. Serve hot.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Halibut or other white fish
Provides the main body and flavor of the bisque as the soup's base protein.
White roux
Thickens the milk mixture so the bisque becomes smooth and creamy.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness, and combines with the roux to form a thickened base.
Pounded cracker
Adds body and helps bind the thickened milk mixture.
Good stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the fish and other ingredients.

The step that matters

Stirring the thickened milk into the fish. Adding the milk mixture after the fish has cooked for five minutes lets the fish set while the roux-thickened milk blends in smoothly. Boiling the mixture once thickens the starch in the roux, which helps prevent lumps and a thin, uneven texture.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, pepper, butter, milk, egg):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits less well
  4. Cinnamonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, pepper, butter, milk, egg. 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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