No. 199

Bisque of Crabs a la Stevens

Bisque de Crabes a la Stevens

Wash twenty-four live crabs in several waters; then drain them, fry half a pound minced onions in butter, adding a quarter of a pound of rice flour and then the crabs; moisten with half a bottleful of white wine and two quarts of broth; cook slowly in a covered saucepan for fifteen minutes, then lift out the crabs only, and strain the broth into another vessel, and leave it to deposit its sediment. Remove the large shells from the crabs, also the small legs and lungs, then wash the crabs well in warm water, moving them around in the pan so as to free them of all adhering sand; after draining them well, pound them in a mortar with the addition of a little butter; moisten them with the decanted stock and some other broth, should it be too thick; strain through a sieve or tammy, and return them to the saucepan. Heat to a boiling degree without actually letting it boil, warm it, then add some egg-yolks, cream and fine butter; strain again through a tammy and serve the soup very hot with crusts of bread cut dice shaped, a quarter of an inch in size.

← No. 198 Bisque of Crabs Soups & Broths No. 200 Bisque of Crabs, Oriental →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's bisque is built the old way: whole crabs cooked in the soup, then pounded shell and all so the shells themselves flavor and thicken the liquid. The method works in a modern kitchen, but two or three steps need translating.

The hinge: no boil after the liaisonOnce the egg yolks, cream and butter go in, the soup must not simmer or the yolks will curdle and the strained bisque will turn grainy. Bring the strained crab stock just to the point of steaming, pull it off the heat, temper the yolks with a ladleful, then return everything and hold it below 180F.
The crabsThe recipe specifies neither species nor size. In Ranhofer's New York the likely crab is the blue crab, of which twenty-four small specimens would come to roughly 6 lb live weight; that is about the right quantity of crab for the volume of liquid given.
"Lungs"These are the gills, the feathery gray strips along each side of the body, often sold under the name dead man's fingers. Pull them off along with the top shell and discard the stomach sac behind the eyes.
Half a bottleful of white wineAbout 1 1/2 cups. A dry unoaked white is right; the recipe specifies nothing beyond 'white wine'.
Rice flourSold as such in Asian groceries and baking aisles, and not interchangeable with glutinous or sweet rice flour. It thickens gently, and rice or rice flour rather than a wheat roux is usual in bisques of this period.
Pounding the crabsA heavy mortar is the authentic tool; a sturdy food processor pulsed with a little butter and stock does the same job faster, though it will not fully break down the claw shell. Do not use a blender jar you care about.
TammyA tammy was a fine worsted cloth, the puree wrung or pressed through it. A chinois with a ladle, or a fine sieve lined with a double layer of damp cheesecloth, gives the same result. Strain twice, as directed, or the bisque will be gritty with shell.
SandThe instruction to wash and agitate the picked crab bodies in warm water is not fussiness. Crabs carry grit in the body cavity, and any that survives the pounding will end up in the finished soup.
Yield and serviceRoughly 2 to 2 1/2 quarts, depending on how much extra broth is used to thin the puree. The 1/4-inch bread dice are best kept crisp.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and it carries a run of consecutive crab bisques, of which this is one (No. 198 precedes it, No. 200 follows). Dishes in the book are routinely tagged with the name of a patron, a rival house or an occasion, but the book explains none of its dedications and the identity behind 'a la Stevens' is not recorded. The technique is older than the attribution: a bisque, in French usage of the period, meant a shellfish soup thickened with the pounded bodies and shells of the shellfish itself, and often with rice or rice flour rather than a wheat roux. The finishing liaison of yolks, cream and raw butter is a standard nineteenth-century move for giving a soup gloss and body at the last moment, and it is also the reason such soups were made to be served immediately rather than held.