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Bisque of Crabs

A creamy crab bisque made with crab shells, rice, butter, stock, herbs, peppers, milk, and egg yolk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Bisque of Crabs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the crabs

  1. Boil the crabs for 30 minutes, then strain and let cool.

  2. Break apart the crabs and pick out the meat.

Make the soup

  1. In a mortar, pound the under-shell and claws with the rice and butter until smooth.

  2. Transfer this mixture to a saucepan and add the stock, herbs, salt, and peppers.

  3. Boil slowly for 1 hour, then pour through a sieve, working as much pulp through as possible.

  4. Keep the soup warm but not boiling, then slowly stir in the warm milk and beaten egg yolk.

  5. Season to taste.

Serve

  1. Heat the crab meat in a little boiling water, drain, and place in a hot tureen.

  2. Pour the soup over the crab meat and serve.

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

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

  2. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  3. Crab + buttertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together812 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

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

  5. Crab + ricetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together117 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Crabs
Provide the meat and the shells that build the flavour of the bisque.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and giving the soup a smooth mouthfeel.
Cold boiled rice
Thickens the soup as it is pounded and pressed through the sieve, adding body.
Stock
Forms the liquid base of the soup.
Egg yolk
Enriches and thickens the finished soup, adding richness and smoothness.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mildness, softening the soup's flavour.

The step that matters

Keep the soup warm but not boiling before adding the milk and egg yolk. Egg yolk thickens by gentle heat and curdles if it boils, so the soup must stay below boiling when the yolk and milk are stirred in slowly.

“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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