Skip to main content
Soup

Bisque of Crab a LA Fitzhardinge

A creamy crab bisque made with boiled crab, rice, consommé, cream, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Crab and cream work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 317 recipes. Both carry acetoin, which smells butter, cream. The science ↓

Bisque of Crab a LA Fitzhardinge

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the crab

  1. Pick the white meat from the claws of the crab and set aside.

  2. Scoop out the pulpy part of the crab and pound it with the cooked rice.

Make the bisque

  1. Dilute the mixture with the consommé and strain it into a puree.

  2. Heat the puree gently, stirring with a wooden spoon to avoid curdling.

  3. Mix in the boiling cream and cayenne pepper.

Serve

  1. Pour the soup into a tureen with the reserved shredded crab meat warmed in consommé.

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. Crab + creamtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together317 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

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

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

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

  4. Crab + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together922 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Rice + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Crab
Provides the main flavour and the body of the soup from its pulpy meat.
Cooked rice
Thickens the mixture as it is pounded and strained into the puree.
Consommé
Thins the mixture to a pourable soup base.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture.

The step that matters

Heating the puree gently. Dairy proteins can curdle or turn grainy if the puree gets too hot or is not stirred, so heat slowly and stir constantly with a wooden spoon.

“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.

You might also like

Indian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and SpinachIndian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and Spinach448 recipesClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd SoupClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd Soup65 recipesMock Bisque SoupMock Bisque Soup51 recipesCream of Asparagus SoupCream of Asparagus Soup42 recipes