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Plain Oyster Soup

A simple oyster soup made with oysters, water, butter, flour, mace, celery, onion, pepper, salt, cream, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Gibson, Marietta Fauntleroy Hollyday, "Mrs. C. H. Gibson." · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Plain Oyster Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Strain the oysters.

  2. If the liquor is not perfectly fresh, discard it and use one pint of water instead.

Make the soup

  1. Add a small onion, three blades of mace, some finely chopped celery, pepper, and salt.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil, then add the oysters.

  3. When the mixture has just come to a boil, add enough cream and milk to fill the tureen.

Thicken

  1. Thicken the soup with flour and butter rubbed together, about two spoonfuls of flour and three ounces of butter to a tureen full, and three pints large oysters.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

644Calories
23 gProtein
15 gFat
101 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 7 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Oyster6 medium (84g)81
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Macenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Gibson, Marietta Fauntleroy Hollyday, "Mrs. C. H. Gibson.". 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. See the original page.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main body and briny flavor of the soup.
Flour
Thickens the soup as its starch swells when heated in liquid.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and helps the flour blend smoothly.
Cream and milk (in the method)
Add richness and a creamy, smooth texture to the broth.

The step that matters

Rubbing the flour and butter together. Flour needs to be evenly coated in fat and then heated in the liquid so its starch swells and thickens the soup without lumps. Adding it raw or in clumps leaves pockets of unthickened flour.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, oyster, flour, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, oyster, flour, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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