The spirit of cookery

However, crayfish soup differs from turtle and most other technically accomplished soups in this, that whether it be clear or thick, it always contains the red or orange coloured crayfish butter, in which the greater part of its characteristic flavour is concentrated. To bind and emulge this butter by suspension in a starchy medium may be suitable in the case of the thick bisque, but for the clear the binding material, whether rice or fried bread, would have to be omitted. Compound Bisque is a bisque as above described, augmented by additions, particularly when the number of crayfish is by itself insufficient to afford material for the necessary volume. Mussels and quenelles of whiting blend very well with the crayfish tails. For potage h la bisque several recipesf exist, all of which begin with the production of a coulis d’dcrevisses, produced like the extract for the bisque, and subsequently expanded. Tails, as well as shells and claws, are to be pounded ; to * This has evidently been misunderstood by a writer who prescribes the coloured butter to be left out altogether. t Potage à la bisque, recipe ol Durand; D.D., 854. Coulis d'6crevisses, cf. La Chapelle, loc. cit., vol. i., p. io2. Three recipes. iS8 the purde of tails white pur6e of fowl is to be added. This combination is useful when a limited number of crayfish has to yield a disproportionately large volume of soup. Observe that the correct name is potage b, la bisque — i.e., a bisque-like soup. The coxdis d’dcrevisses serves for the preparation of soups not only, but of all kinds of entries, which are then termed au cotolis d’dcrevisses. Grab Soup, Bisque b la Normande, or Potage au. Pouparts, is a paraphrase of bisque. The crabs to be employed in the production of this soup are those which bear the name of pouparts on the coast of Normandy. Two dozen of them will give a soup for eight persons. Compound Crab Soiop, made with a large boiled crab, is mainly a pur6e of crab-pulp, thickened with rice or consommd of fried bread, to which the minced flesh of the claws is added. Compound Lobster Soup is a coloured puree of lobster flesh with tails of prawns and quenelles of whiting in broth. The colour is furnished by the coral and spawn of henlobsters. All the flesh is transformed into puree ; the pith, as the contents, of the lobster’s stomach are termed, is added to the broth. Compoiind Prawn Soup is a puree of p>raions and rice in broth, with tails of praivns and qioenelles of trout, or other suitable fish. Fish Soups and other Soups for Fast-days. The ecclesiastical prohibition of the consumption of meat on Fridays and sundry other days, which does not obtain in Spain or Portugal, is in other countries obeyed in various degrees and modifications. Some purists include all animal food above fish in the prohibition ; others use eggs, milk, cheese, etc., in contradiction of their avowed principles, after the manner of the vegetarians. As all sorts of fish are^ permitted, it is not difficult to compose a sumptuous bill of FISH AND VEGETABLE BROTHS