Using Seafood Base in Your Soups

Whether you a professional chef, or just a chef at home and at heart, you know that building the right flavor profiles in your dishes is critical to having them taste as delicious as possible. Because of that, you know that using the right base in many dishes is critical. A good stock, or base, is the way to build your dish from the ground up, whether it’s poultry, beef or vegetables.

One dish where people seem to forget they can build a delicious base is with seafood. A good seafood base will provide the balance and the hints of flavor that your dish needs to be able to come out perfectly. Here are some great soups that can be started with the perfect seafood flavor base.

Clam Chowder

The great thing about clam chowder is that the tastes aren’t overwhelming. You get the creamy deliciousness of the broth, with clams, potatoes and vegetables mixed into it creating the perfect pairing. But the soup is nothing without the clam flavor base. If you’re simply relying on the flavor of the added clams, you don’t get the even flavor in every bite that you get with the clam base. The clam base provides a delicious undertone of clam, without being overpowering, giving the soup a perfect profile.

Lobster Bisque

Lobster on its own does not have much flavor, so you can see why lobster bisque is the perfect soup for a seafood base. Whether you use lobster base, or a mild seafood fish base, it starts the dish off in the right direction, giving it a flavor profile to work with. With soups like lobster bisque, where you don’t want to flavor to be overwhelming, in order to keep the integrity of the lobster flavor, you want to make sure that you’re using a milder base to make your dish.

Crab Soup

While crab has a bigger flavor than lobster, you still need to season the broth, and that’s where a good seafood base comes in. Seasoning the broth in your crab soup enhances the flavor of every element of the soup giving you a much bolder and brighter experience.

These are just three great examples where a seafood base really makes the meal. But it also comes in handy in many other recipes, including giving flavor to your boiling liquids. A good seafood base gives your meal a depth of flavor that cannot be rivaled in any other way.