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Lobster Bisque

A creamy soup made from lobster meat, stock, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and celery 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 ↓

Lobster Bisque

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Boil the lobsters, then cool and remove the meat.

  2. Cut the tender pieces into small cubes.

  3. Pound the rest of the lobster to a paste.

  4. Pound the claws and tail shell finely, then add the coral and 1 tablespoon butter and pound until smooth.

Make the broth

  1. Combine the pounded meat with a bay leaf, parsley, celery, onion, pepper, salt, and chicken stock in a small saucepan, cover the saucepan, and simmer slowly for 45 minutes.

  2. In another saucepan, combine stale bread crumbs and 1½ cups stock and simmer for 30 minutes.

  3. Strain the first saucepan's contents through a cloth, squeeze the cloth well, and add the strained contents to the second saucepan.

  4. Simmer for 5 minutes.

  5. Rub through a fine sieve and return the broth to the fire.

  6. Add more salt and pepper if needed.

Thicken and serve

  1. Mix 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon flour to a paste.

  2. Stir the paste into the broth until it thickens slightly.

  3. Add 1 pint of scalded cream or rich milk and the lobster cubes.

  4. Let stand by the fire for 3 minutes before serving.

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. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobsters
Provide the main flavour and the tender meat cut into cubes for the finished bisque.
Stale bread crumbs
Add body to the broth as they soften and break down during simmering.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour from the coral and the flour-based thickener.
Flour
Thickens the broth slightly when cooked into a paste with butter.
Cream or rich milk
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Rub through a fine sieve. Pressing the simmered solids through a fine sieve removes fibres and shell fragments, giving the bisque a smooth texture rather than a grainy one.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, butter, parsley, celery, pepper, chicken, bread. 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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