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Lobster Bisque

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

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. Cut the tender meat from the claws of the lobster into small pieces.

  2. Pound the remaining lobster meat into a paste.

  3. In a stew pan, combine the pounded meat, 1 tablespoon of butter, 6 claws, the coral, bay leaf, parsley, celery, onion, and half the chicken stock.

  4. Simmer for 1 hour without boiling.

Make the soup base

  1. In another stew pan, combine the bread crumbs and the remaining stock, and cook for 20 minutes.

  2. Strain the meat mixture over the bread mixture, pressing out all moisture.

  3. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve back into the pan.

  4. Add salt, white pepper, and nutmeg to the soup.

Thicken and finish

  1. Rub the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter with the flour.

  2. Stir the butter‑flour mixture into the soup.

  3. Simmer for 10 minutes.

  4. Heat the cream in a double boiler.

  5. Add the heated cream and lobster to the soup.

  6. Bring the soup to a boil once.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Lobster + creamtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,258 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main sweet, briny flavour and the body of the bisque.
Chicken stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the lobster and bread flavours.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Stale bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and help thicken the soup, giving it body.
Butter
Adds fat and rich flavour, and is worked with flour to thicken the soup.
Flour
Thickens the soup when cooked with butter into a roux-like paste.

The step that matters

Bring the soup to a boil once. Once cream is added, boiling can cause it to curdle or separate. Heating gently keeps the bisque smooth, so bring it up only once and avoid a hard, prolonged boil.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

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