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Bisque of Clams
Place a good knuckle of veal, weighing about a pound and a half, into a soup kettle, with a quart of water, one small onion, a sprig of parsley, a bay leaf, and the liquor drained from the clams, and simmer gradually for an hour and a half, skimming from time to time. Then strain the soup and again place it in the kettle; rub a couple of tablespoonfuls of butter with an equal amount of flour together and add it to the soup when it is boiling, stirring the while until again boiling. Chop up twenty-five clams very fine and place them in the soup, season, and boil for about five minutes, then add a pint of milk or cream, and remove from the fire immediately, and serve.
A clear-broth bisque in the older sense: veal stock thickened with a butter-and-flour roux, finished with milk and never boiled again. Two things decide whether it works — the clams and the finish.
- Add the dairy off the heatThe instruction to remove the pan the moment the milk goes in is the hinge of the recipe. Clam liquor is acidic and salty enough that milk will curdle if it is held at a boil; warm the milk separately, stir it in, and serve at once.
- The clamsTwenty-five suggests hard-shell clams, quahogs or cherrystones rather than the smallest sizes. The recipe assumes they are already opened, since it calls for the liquor drained from them; strain that liquor through a cloth to catch sand before it goes into the stock.
- Five minutes is too longFinely chopped clams need very little cooking. Two to three minutes in the simmering soup is enough; longer and they tighten into rubber.
- Veal knuckleA sawn veal shank or knuckle bone, still the best source of natural gelatine for body. Butchers will cut one on request. In its absence, 3 cups of unsalted veal or light chicken stock reduced slightly will do, though the texture is thinner.
- Season last, and lightlyBetween the clam liquor and the reduction of the stock, this soup is often salty enough on its own. The recipe says only 'season'; taste after the clams go in, not before.
- The rouxTwo tablespoons each of butter and flour to roughly a quart of liquid gives a light coating consistency. Rub them to a smooth paste (a beurre manié) and whisk it into the boiling soup in pieces so it does not lump.
- YieldRoughly a quart to a quart and a half finished, depending on how far the stock reduces; four servings, or six as a first course.
"Bisque" on an American menu of this period could mean two quite different things: the French shellfish purée thickened with rice or its own pounded shells, and the lighter Anglo-American soup of stock, roux and cream that this recipe represents. New England had long been making clam chowders and clam broths. The veal knuckle base reflects the professional practice of building cream soups on a gelatinous stock, with the shellfish laid over it as flavouring rather than forming the whole of it.