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Oyster Soup

A creamy soup made from oysters, stock, butter, flour, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Oyster and anchovy work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 603 recipes mention both. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Oyster Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters and stock

  1. Place the oysters in a small saucepan with their liquor and bring to almost a boil, then strain.

  2. Remove the gills from the oysters, cut them in half, and set aside for later.

  3. Simmer the oyster gills with the liquor and stock for 30 minutes to extract flavor.

  4. Strain through a fine sieve and rinse the saucepan.

Make the soup

  1. Melt the butter in the saucepan without browning it, then add the flour and mix until smooth.

  2. Pour in the stock and stir constantly over heat until boiling. Skim if necessary.

  3. Season with white pepper, salt, anchovy essence, and cayenne pepper.

  4. In a bowl, beat the egg yolk with the cream and strain into the soup, stirring constantly.

Serve

  1. Place the oysters in a soup tureen, pour the soup over them, and serve.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Oyster + anchovytop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together603 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Oyster + fishtop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together496 recipes

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

  4. Fish + anchovytop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together637 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together4,488 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 flavor and tender texture of the soup.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor, and helps form the base roux.
Flour
Thickens the butter and stock into a smooth base for the soup.
Fish stock or white stock
Forms the liquid body of the soup.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture.
Egg yolk
Enriches and further thickens the soup when stirred in.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolk and cream. If the hot soup is added too quickly or boiled after the yolk goes in, the egg can scramble and the soup turns grainy. Stirring constantly while adding the yolk mixture keeps it smooth.

“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.

More oyster soup recipes

Mock 19White 16Vegetable 8Chicken 3Cream 3 See all 520 →

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