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Bisque of Lobster and Shrimp

A creamy soup made from lobster, shrimp, vegetables, wine, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Bisque of Lobster and Shrimp

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Cut the heads off the lobsters and chop them into one-inch pieces, shells included.

  2. Heat the butter in a pan over an open fire.

  3. Add the lobster, carrot, onion, and celery to the pan.

  4. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently.

  5. Pour in the brandy and sherry.

  6. Ignite the liquors and stir until the flames extinguish.

  7. Transfer the mixture to a mortar and pound to a paste.

  8. Return the paste to the saucepan.

Simmer the bisque

  1. Add the parsley, thyme, bay leaf, clove, and rice.

  2. Moisten with water, white wine, and crushed tomatoes.

  3. Season with salt and cayenne pepper.

  4. Bring to a gentle boil for 1.5 hours, stirring occasionally.

  5. Strain the soup through a sieve into a basin.

  6. Strain through a Chinese strainer back into the saucepan.

  7. Stir in the cream and let it simmer.

  8. Remove the shells from the cooked shrimp.

  9. Add the shrimp shells to the soup with butter.

  10. Cook for 5 minutes.

Serve

  1. Pour the bisque into a soup tureen.

  2. 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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

  4. Brandy + sherrytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main shellfish flavor and body, especially when the shells are pounded and cooked into the broth.
Rice
Thickens the broth as it cooks and softens, giving the bisque a smoother body.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture to the finished bisque.
Tomatoes
Adds acidity and color, balancing the sweetness of the shellfish and vegetables.
Butter
Carries fat-soluble flavors from the shells and vegetables into the soup and adds richness.
Onion
Builds a sweet, savory base of flavor when softened in butter at the start.

The step that matters

Pounding the cooked lobster mixture to a paste. Crushing the shells and softened vegetables breaks them down so their flavor and color release into the broth during the long simmer. Pieces left whole would yield a thinner, less flavorful bisque.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, butter, carrot, celery, brandy, sherry, parsley):

  1. Turnipfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, butter, carrot, celery, brandy, sherry, 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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