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Lobster Bisque

A creamy soup made from lobster shells, meat, vegetables, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Lobster Bisque

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Split the lobster down the back and remove the meat.

  2. Break the claws and pound the shells in a mortar until fine.

Make the bisque

  1. Mix the pounded shells with the butter in a stewpan and heat until hot.

  2. Add the flour and cook for 10 minutes.

  3. Moisten with the wine and fish stock, then add the vegetables, bouquet garni, and peppercorns.

  4. Stir until it boils, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

  5. If too thick, add more stock.

  6. Strain through a tammy cloth.

Finish and serve

  1. Cut the claw meat into neat dice and place in a soup tureen with the cream.

  2. Heat the bisque, season with salt, lemon juice, and cayenne, then pour into the tureen and 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 + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Turnip + flourtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster shells
Provide the concentrated shellfish flavour that gives the bisque its character.
Butter
Carries the shell flavour and adds richness to the base.
Flour
Thickens the bisque as it cooks with the butter and liquid.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich stock.
Cream
Adds smoothness and richness to the finished soup.
Fish stock
Forms the liquid base that the bisque simmers in.

The step that matters

Adding the flour and cooking it for 10 minutes. The flour must cook in the hot butter long enough to lose its raw taste and thicken evenly; undercooked flour leaves a pasty flavour and lumps, while the later stock addition should be done gradually to avoid clumping.

“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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