Billi Bi (Creamy Mussel Bisque)
By Andrea GearyPublished on September 24, 2025
Time
50 minutes
Yield
Serves 4 to 8
Ingredients
Before You Begin
Discard any mussel with an unpleasant odor or with a cracked or broken shell or a shell that won’t close. Use a dry white wine such as Sauvignon Blanc here. Warming the serving bowls helps keep the soup hotter for longer. We like garnishing this soup with a sprinkle of chives, but you may use minced parsley, if desired. Serve small bowls of soup as a starter or serve larger bowls with crusty bread and a salad for a complete meal.
Instructions
- Combine 1½ cups water, 1 cup white wine, 1 chopped onion, 4 sprigs parsley, ⅜ teaspoon table salt, and ¼ teaspoon dried thyme in Dutch oven. Cover and bring to boil over high heat. Add 2 pounds mussels; cover; and cook until mussels have opened, 4 to 5 minutes.
- Using spider skimmer, transfer mussels to rimmed baking sheet to cool. Set fine-mesh strainer over bowl. Pour mussel broth through strainer. Discard solids and let broth sit for 5 minutes to let any grit settle. Rinse out Dutch oven.
- When mussels are cool enough to handle, remove meat from shells and place in small bowl. Discard shells.
- Melt 2 tablespoons unsalted butter in now-empty Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Stir in 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture turns light golden, about 1 minute. Slowly whisk in strained broth (do not add last tablespoon if it contains visible grit) and bring to boil. Reduce heat to simmer.
- Whisk 1 cup heavy cream and 2 egg yolks together in medium bowl. Stirring slowly and constantly, add 1 cup hot broth mixture to cream mixture. Stirring constantly, slowly pour cream mixture into pot. Add pinch cayenne and heat gently, stirring constantly, until soup registers 175 to 180 degrees, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and keep warm.
- Divide mussels among warm soup bowls. Pour soup over mussels, sprinkle with 1 tablespoon minced chives, and serve.
Time
50 minutesYield
Serves 4 to 8Ingredients
Test Kitchen Techniques
Ingredients
Test Kitchen Techniques
Ingredients
Test Kitchen Techniques
Why This Recipe Works
Billi bi is an elegantly simple and luxuriously creamy soup studded with juicy, briny mussels. To ensure that our mussels remained plump and succulent, we brought our liquid—water, wine, onions, and herbs—to a boil before adding the shellfish, and we cooked them for a mere 4 to 5 minutes. Enriching the strained liquor with a liaison of cream and egg yolks produced a soup that was lush but not cloying. Mixing in a roux of butter and flour not only gave the soup more body but also made it harder for the egg yolk proteins to link, so the soup could be heated more without fear of curdling. Removing the mussels from the shells made it easier to eat the soup neatly, and serving it in warmed bowls helped it stay hot to the last drop.
Want more? Read the whole storyBefore You Begin
Discard any mussel with an unpleasant odor or with a cracked or broken shell or a shell that won’t close. Use a dry white wine such as Sauvignon Blanc here. Warming the serving bowls helps keep the soup hotter for longer. We like garnishing this soup with a sprinkle of chives, but you may use minced parsley, if desired. Serve small bowls of soup as a starter or serve larger bowls with crusty bread and a salad for a complete meal.
Instructions
- Combine 1½ cups water, 1 cup white wine, 1 chopped onion, 4 sprigs parsley, ⅜ teaspoon table salt, and ¼ teaspoon dried thyme in Dutch oven. Cover and bring to boil over high heat. Add 2 pounds mussels; cover; and cook until mussels have opened, 4 to 5 minutes.
- Using spider skimmer, transfer mussels to rimmed baking sheet to cool. Set fine-mesh strainer over bowl. Pour mussel broth through strainer. Discard solids and let broth sit for 5 minutes to let any grit settle. Rinse out Dutch oven.
- When mussels are cool enough to handle, remove meat from shells and place in small bowl. Discard shells.
- Melt 2 tablespoons unsalted butter in now-empty Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Stir in 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture turns light golden, about 1 minute. Slowly whisk in strained broth (do not add last tablespoon if it contains visible grit) and bring to boil. Reduce heat to simmer.
- Whisk 1 cup heavy cream and 2 egg yolks together in medium bowl. Stirring slowly and constantly, add 1 cup hot broth mixture to cream mixture. Stirring constantly, slowly pour cream mixture into pot. Add pinch cayenne and heat gently, stirring constantly, until soup registers 175 to 180 degrees, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and keep warm.
- Divide mussels among warm soup bowls. Pour soup over mussels, sprinkle with 1 tablespoon minced chives, and serve.
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