Type of Bisque Soups

Bisque is a smooth, creamy, highly seasoned soup of French origin, based on a strained broth of crustaceans. It can be made from lobster, spiny lobster, langoustine, spider crab, crab, prawns, shrimp, or crayfish. There are no types of bisque as such, at least for true bisque.

In modern cuisine, bisque is also commonly used to highly seasoned cream-based soups that do not contain seafood, in which the sometimes pre-cooked ingredients are pureed or processed in a food processor or a food mill.

Common varieties include squash, tomato, mushroom, and red pepper. The only similarity between the two is “highly seasoned” to describe a sharp and pungent taste for all bisque. This is more of a marketing term in my opinion, and bisque should refer to crustacean soups.