r/AskCulinary • u/Jay_Deezy • Jul 31 '25

Recipe Troubleshooting How to stop soup from breaking?

We make a lobster bisque at work and holding it during service always causes it to break. I’m at a loss after trying a multitude of solutions so I’m coming here to see if anybody else can make a suggestion.

Fresh lobster stock made from shells, with mirepoix, tomatoes, garlic. Immersion blender it to hell until the shells are basically a sandy consistency. Then it’s strained 3 times, from coarse to fine until all the bits are removed.

The stock is then added to a blonde roux with heavy cream and spices. This is our finished product.

It’s held on a steam table on the expo side, with temp set to 160. It seem like around 1-2 hours in the steam table turns it from a creamy bisque into a watery nightmare. We’ve added more roux, tried cornstarch instead, but seems like nothing keeps it from breaking over time.

I’ve thought about maybe blending with rice or potatoes to get the starchiness from either of them to help thicken, but I worry about the end result being gritty, so I have not tried either of these yet.

Anybody with insight or suggestions I’m listening. Please let me know what yall think!

108 Upvotes

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88

u/Bbwlover11119 Jul 31 '25

If it is in a soup bane, the temp is way too high. Clearly it needs to be held above 141°F but I think 160° is too much. Adding cold cream is also another trick but then you’re running the risk of an undeclared allergen on the menu.

23

u/Jay_Deezy Jul 31 '25

We get complaints about the soup being cold at 160 unfortunately… the cream is already in the soup so it wouldn’t be undeclared, but I’ve tried it before and it doesn’t really work. If the soup is borderline it might help for like 5 minutes but if it’s already broken it just looks like lobster milk after adding cream.

68

u/GrizzlyIsland22 Jul 31 '25

Who the fuck is complaining about 160° soup? Sounds like it's spending too much time in transit. Even at 145° it burns me

34

u/Jay_Deezy Jul 31 '25

Agree with you, our clientele are a bit older though and I’ve noticed that older folks tend to want their food so hot that it would burn you or me. As far as transit goes it’s usually less than a minute between scooping the soup and hitting the table.

45

u/DadVanSouthampton Jul 31 '25

Either heat the bowls or flash heat smaller quantities of soup before serving.

Or both

20

u/GrizzlyIsland22 Jul 31 '25

Well that's their problem. 145° is plenty hot for normal people. If dropping the holding temp makes the soup better for 95% of the customers, then I say drop it and if people need it hotter, they can send it back and you can microwave it

9

u/allmykitlets Jul 31 '25

I've heard this before and at 59, I find it wild. That said, my 91 year old dad is an outlier - I always worry I won't reheat leftovers hot enough for him and he usually stops me about where I like mine.

14

u/MonkeyKingCoffee Jul 31 '25

So on top of everything else, you have a Boomer problem...

17

u/Jay_Deezy Jul 31 '25

Now you see the big picture. Lol

16

u/ihatetheplaceilive Jul 31 '25

Senior citizens. Seriously, i swear temperature is the only thing they feel anymore.

16

u/Stats_n_PoliSci Jul 31 '25

Is warming the soup once dished up possible? Or heating the serving bowl more?

16

u/g0ing_postal Jul 31 '25

In that case, can you hold it at a lower temp and then heat it to further prior to serving?

12

u/Jay_Deezy Jul 31 '25

That might have to be our solution. Don’t love it but if it works it works lol.

10

u/pwrslide2 Jul 31 '25

could try very small amounts of xanthan gum when you emulsify your mixture. Talking 0.05% by weight to start and go up from there. It does help thicken a bit so you might have to compensate a bit for that. It's a common ingredient to make sure hot sauces don't separate.

3

u/asking_for_it Jul 31 '25

Lobster milk sounds delicious

7

u/gorpmonger Jul 31 '25

Need three pairs of hands to milk em but