Bisque is a soup of ancient origin, to which there are many allusions in old literary works. The old recipes for bisque begin with "Wash half a hundred crayfish"; for, in its first estate, the basis of a bisque was always crayfish, a small fresh-water crustacean resembling the lobster. At the present time we have come to use the word in a more general sense, applying it to a class of purées generally made of salt-water mollusks, or crustaceans, to which milk or cream is added, sometimes white stock, also tender bits of the fish cooked for the purée. We also speak of "mock bisque soup," a soup having the general characteristics - particularly as regards color and consistency - of the original bisque, but wanting in anything corresponding to the tender bits of crayfish that are so conspicuous in the original soup. We might, also, regardless of color, etc., have a bisque of mushrooms. Bisques were formerly thickened with boiled rice which was pounded with the flesh to a pulp and sifted into the hot milk.