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Soup

Fish Bisque Maigre

A light fish bisque made with white fish, milk, butter, and cracker crumbs, served over soaked Boston crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley 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 ↓

Fish Bisque Maigre

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the fish

  1. Cut the fish into 1‑inch square pieces and place in a pot with the onion, celery, and boiling water.

  2. Cook until the fish is tender, then remove the pieces with a skimmer.

  3. Remove the bones and chop the fish finely.

  4. Strain the liquid left in the pot and return it to the heat with the minced fish, parsley, and cracker crumbs.

Finish the soup

  1. Season with pepper and salt, stir to a gentle boil, then add the butter.

  2. Finally, add the scalding hot milk and simmer for one minute.

Serve

  1. Pour the soup over the split Boston crackers that have been soaked in hot milk, salted, peppered, and buttered.

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. Celery + parsleytop 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Onion + celerytop 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

Fish
Provides the main body and flavor of the bisque as it cooks down into the broth.
Cracker crumbs
Thicken the broth and give the soup a smooth, body-rich texture.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness, softening the broth's savory flavor.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Boston crackers
Soak up the hot liquid, becoming a soft base for the soup.

The step that matters

Adding the scalding hot milk. Milk can curdle or scorch if it is added cold to a boiling liquid or boiled hard. Adding it hot and only simmering briefly keeps the soup smooth and prevents the proteins from separating.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, celery, parsley, milk, butter, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, celery, parsley, milk, butter, pepper. 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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