Bisque is paste; bisque soups are soups thickened with a paste or puree or pulp offish or game, as bisque ice creams are, creams thickened with pulp of fruit or nuts. Selected small pieces of the meat are put in at least as a sign of what the soup is made.

Take 6 quarts of soup stock, and boil in it the bones or part of a fish, or perhaps the remains of yesterday's matelotte. Take out half of it and made into butter sauce. Pound a can of lobster to a paste, and mix the butter sauce with it and pass through a seive; strain the rest of the soup stock and mix both portions together. A cupful or two of selected red meat of lobster may be added, and sprinkling of parsley, salt and cayenne.