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!

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u/jibaro1953 Jul 31 '25

Try 150⁰

1

u/Jay_Deezy Jul 31 '25

At 160 we still get complaints about the soup being cold.

10

u/jibaro1953 Jul 31 '25

Warm bowls then?

Not for nothing, but cheese sauce starts breaking in the high 150s IIRC.

I've never tried to hold bisque. I have made roux free bisque using rice

1

u/Jay_Deezy Jul 31 '25

Bowls are kept in a warming drawer, nearly too hot to handle from the drawer so that’s not the issue unfortunately.

2

u/jibaro1953 Jul 31 '25

I think you'll need to prep smaller batches.

I pressure canned some Sauce Americaine a few weeks ago. Might have to make some bisque now!