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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
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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 base

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

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

  3. Dilute the mixture with the consommé and strain it through a fine sieve into a puree.

Finish and serve

  1. Heat the puree gently in a soup pot, stirring with a wooden spoon to avoid curdling.

  2. Mix in the boiling cream and cayenne pepper, then pour into a tureen with the reserved claw 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 flavor and the rich, savory body of the bisque.
Cooked rice
Thickens the puree and gives it a smooth, full texture when pounded and strained.
Consommé
Supplies the liquid that thins the puree to a soup consistency.
Cream
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Heating the puree gently. Heating too fast or without stirring can make the dairy and proteins curdle, leaving the bisque grainy. Gentle heat and constant stirring keep it smooth.

“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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