Why it works: Oyster and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,184 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓
Another Oyster Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the liquor
Take two quarts of large oysters. Strain their liquor into a soup pan; season it with a teaspoonful of whole pepper, a teaspoonful of grated nutmeg, the same quantity of whole cloves, and seven or eight blades of mace.
If the oysters are fresh, add a large teaspoonful of salt; if they are salt oysters, none is requisite.
Set the pan on hot coals, and boil it slowly (skimming it when necessary) until it is sufficiently flavored with the taste of the spice.
Take the liquor from the fire, and strain out the spice from it.
Finish the soup
In the meantime (having cut out the hard part) chop the oysters finely, with some hard-boiled egg yolk.
Then return it to the soup pan, and put the chopped oysters into it, with whatever liquid may have continued about them.
Add a quarter pound of butter, divided into little bits and rolled in flour.
Cover the pan, and let it boil hard for about five minutes.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 3 of 4 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Oyster | 6 medium (84g) | 81 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Mace | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
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Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,184 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
-
Butter + macetop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,405 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
-
Oyster + macetop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,910 recipes
Butter and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,405 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
- Form the body of the soup, giving its main flavor and tender texture when chopped and simmered.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a silky body; rolled in flour, it thickens the liquid as it melts.
- Hard-boiled egg yolk (in the method)
- Adds richness and a creamy texture that softens the soup.
The step that matters
Adding the floured butter. Butter rolled in flour must be stirred in while the liquid is boiling. The flour starch swells and thickens the soup, and the fat emulsifies into it; if added off the heat, it clumps and the soup stays thin.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, butter):
- Capersfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, butter. 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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