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Bisque of Lobster

A creamy soup made with lobster, stock, cream, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Bisque of Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the stock

  1. Chop the lobster meat finely and place it in a saucepan with half of the white stock.

  2. Pound the lobster coral with half of the butter and add it to the stock.

  3. Tie the onion, mace, parsley, and bay leaf in a small bag and add to the stock; simmer for 1 hour.

  4. In a double boiler, combine the remaining stock and bread; simmer for 30 minutes.

  5. Scald the cream.

  6. Strain all the stock through a fine sieve.

Finish the bisque

  1. Cook the remaining flour and butter until smooth, then add the strained mixture and seasoning.

  2. Strain again, add the cream and bits of lobster meat, and do not boil after adding the cream.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main sweet, briny flavour and the tender meat that gives the bisque body.
Lobster coral
Adds colour and a rich, concentrated lobster flavour when pounded into the stock.
White bread crumbs
Thicken the stock slightly, giving it more body and a smoother mouthfeel.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture to the finished soup.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour, and is cooked with flour to form a thickening roux.
Flour
Thickens the bisque when cooked with butter into a roux.

The step that matters

Do not boil after adding the cream. Boiling cream can cause it to separate and curdle, leaving the bisque grainy and thin instead of smooth and velvety.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, bread, cream, flour, celery, butter, parsley):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, bread, cream, flour, celery, butter, parsley. 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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