Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 41,516 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Oyster-Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Shuck the oysters and reserve the liquor.
Make the soup
In a pot, melt the butter and add the fish stock.
Bring to a simmer and add the oyster liquor.
Stir in the cream and season with salt and pepper.
Add the oysters and cook until they are just firm.
Serve
Serve hot.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Oyster + fishtop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together496 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together8,184 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Oyster + creamtop 17% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,886 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Oysters
- Provide the main flavor and tender texture of the soup.
- Fish stock
- Forms the liquid base that carries the soup's savory flavor.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky body to the broth.
- Butter
- Adds fat and rich flavor to the base at the start.
The step that matters
Add the oysters and cook until they are just firm. Oysters toughen and turn rubbery when overcooked, so they should be added near the end and removed from heat as soon as they firm up.
“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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