Do you know What Is Bisque Soup? Bisque soup is a creamy, white-beige soup with chunks of fish, seafood, or vegetables.
It is based on the French dip of seafood or vegetables in a cream sauce that Chef Thomas (Tom) Buller popularized in 1837 during the potato famine. Bisque soup is made with cream, butter, and stock. Bisque soup is a French word for broth. Bisque soup is generally served hot over pieces of toast or noodles.
Bisque soup is usually served as an appetizer or a chilled side dish in a restaurant. When ordering bisque soup in a restaurant, it can be preceded by telling the server that you want French-style (beef) bisque soup or that you wish to have the chef prepare your soup however you desire.
So, What Is Bisque Soup?
Bisque soup is a cream soup with seafood or vegetables, thickened with roux. It can be served hot or cold but is usually served hot. Its main ingredients are fish stock, cream, and butter.
Bisque soup is a type of French-style (beef) bisque recipe that was first created by the chef Tom Buller in 1837 during the potato famine.
What Is Bisque?
Bisque soup is a French brothy soup that combines cream with butter and fish stock. The butter gives the soup a smooth, silky texture.
Bisque is traditionally served hot with (hot) toast or noodles on the side. It is often made for cold days when you don’t feel like eating anything warm but want something other than tomato or noodle soup.
Bisque can be made by boiling seafood in salted water without seasoning it with salt. The seafood is removed, and all the fish bones and shells are removed, after which the cooking liquid is strained to make a stock. This stock made from boiling seafood is used as a base for bisque.
The bisque can be flavored with wine or additional spices, often saffron. Bisque soup is considered an elegant soup, and it is served in restaurants in some areas of France.
How to make Bisque soup?
Ingredients:
Bisque soup ingredients include:
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 3 cups fish stock/fish stock created from boiling seafood. (Like lobster, shrimp, or chicken stock)
Garnish with:
- 2 tablespoons chopped chives, parsley
- 1 pound of lump crab meat, cooked lobster meat, cooked shrimp meat, cooked chicken meat, or cooked crab shells.
How to make bisque?
There are only two steps to making authentic and delicious French bisque soup. First, melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed pot and then add flour to make a roux.
Cook this roux over medium heat for about one minute, often stirring so it doesn’t brown. Second, add the cooked seafood stock to the roux and stir over medium heat until thickened.
Authentic French bisque is made with a white roux, but you can make this soup as you please. For example, add flour if you want a darker color. For example, add milk if you want a creamier color. Adding milk will make this soup richer and creamier than using all butter for making the roux.
Bisque is better if made in advance. You can make a simple seafood bisque by adding chopped cooked lobster meat to your favorite seafood stock or a luxurious cream bisque by adding butter and flour. Garnish your bisque soup with fresh chives, parsley, and French bread cubes.
How Is Bisque Different Than Soup?
Bisque is a soup. Soup can also be known as a stew. However, there is no clear definition of the difference between soup and stew.
Bisque is a thick, creamy soup that can be served hot or cold. It can be different from traditional soup because it has cream and no chunks of vegetables are added to it.
Soups do not have cream added to them and are usually served hot. Bisque can be served cold as a chilled side dish or appetizer.
What defines a bisque?
For a soup to be considered a bisque, its main ingredient must be fish stock. Fish stock is made by boiling seafood in water. This creates a rich broth that is used as the base for the soup. This stock can be considered a traditional French bisque.
A French-style (beef) bisque is made with beef stock, but you will use the fish stock for this recipe. Once you have made your stock, you can add a combination of seafood or vegetables and drive a different type of bisque soup.
Bisque is also referred to as a “cream soup” because of its added cream. The cream is thickened by using flour or butter.
What’s the difference between a bisque and a chowder?
A chowder is a soup that is served cold. Its main ingredients do not contain any cream, butter, or roux. Chowder can be made with fish or clam juice instead of seafood stock. Adding clam juice will make the soup sweeter and more prosperous.
The difference between a bisque and a chowder is the roux, which gives the soup its silky texture. A bisque has a white roux (flour cooked in butter), whereas chowders do not have this roux.
A bisque soup can be served hot or cold, but chowders are always served hot. Adding roux to a chowder will make it thicker than the traditional chowder without the roux.
What Are Some Good Bisque Soup Recipes?
Are there any good bisque soup recipes? There are many variations on bisque recipes, which makes it hard to choose one to make. However, you can select something different from your typical bisque recipe by adding something extra. Here are some excellent variations:
A different type of bisque can be made by adding saffron to the soup. Saffron is a spice that was first used in Europe in the Middle Ages and was used for making medicinal teas.
It can also add flavor to bisque by using it as an aromatic herb instead of just adding it to the soup. The color of saffron is yellow, and its taste is intense, bitter, and pungent; however, its flavor is very subtle and balances well with butter.
Our Final Say
Bisque soup is a French soup made by adding cream to fish stock. It can be served hot or cold. It is usually served with fresh bread on the side, which helps to make it more appealing.
There are many variations of this soup. You can add different vegetables and seafood to the cream stock. A traditional bisque uses seafood from lobster, shrimp, crab, and fish, whereas this version uses shrimp instead of seafood as its main ingredient.
I hope you liked our recipes for French Bisque soup and Lobster Bisque. Please check out the other soup recipes in our recipe section if you want more recipes.
