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Oyster Bouillon

A clear oyster broth made by extracting juice from oysters, enriched with egg white and hot milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Oyster and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,103 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Oyster Bouillon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oyster juice

  1. Pick over and drain the oysters, then chop them finely.

  2. Place the chopped oysters in a double boiler and heat slowly to extract the juice.

  3. Strain the juice through a fine sieve, pressing out all the liquid.

Clarify the broth

  1. Return the juice to the fire in an agate saucepan and beat in the egg white.

  2. Bring to a boil and cook for one minute.

  3. Set aside without disturbing for five minutes, then strain through doubled cheesecloth.

Serve

  1. Season and add an equal quantity of hot milk before serving.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Oyster + milktop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main flavour and the juice that forms the bouillon.
Egg white
Coagulates as it heats, trapping fine particles so the broth clears when strained.
Milk
Adds richness and mellows the briny flavour of the oyster juice.

The step that matters

Beat in the egg white before boiling. The egg white must be fully mixed into the juice before heating. As it cooks it coagulates and gathers suspended particles, which is what clears the broth. If it is not evenly dispersed, or the liquid is stirred afterward, the clarification fails and the bouillon stays cloudy.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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