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Oyster Soup

A creamy oyster soup made with oysters, milk, butter, crackers, celery, nutmeg, mace, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Leslie · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Oyster Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Add a pint of water to two quarts of oysters and let them set for an hour.

  2. Remove the oysters from the liquor.

  3. Grate and roll a dozen crackers finely.

Make the soup

  1. Add the grated crackers to the liquor with a large lump of fresh butter.

  2. When the grated biscuit has dissolved, add a quart of milk, grated nutmeg, a dozen blades of mace, and, if in season, a head of celery split fine and cut into small pieces.

  3. Season the mixture to taste with pepper. Mix the whole together.

  4. Set the mixture in a closely covered vessel over a slow fire.

  5. When it comes to a boil, add the oysters.

  6. When it boils again, the oysters will be sufficiently done.

Serve

  1. Before serving, put toasted bread cut into small squares, omitting the crust, into the tureen.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

248Calories
18 gProtein
11 gFat
19 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 6 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Oyster6 medium (84g)81
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
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 Eliza Leslie. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Celery + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Celery + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Milk + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,346 recipes

    Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).

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 texture, cooked gently at the end so they stay tender.
Crackers (in the method)
Grated and dissolved into the liquor, they thicken the soup and give it body.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess, softening the broth into a smooth soup.
Butter (in the method)
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the soup.
Celery
Adds a fresh, aromatic vegetable flavour when used in season.

The step that matters

Keep the soup at a gentle simmer once the oysters go in. Oysters toughen and shrink when overcooked, so they should be heated only until they just boil again and then removed from the heat.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, milk, nutmeg, mace):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, milk, nutmeg, mace. 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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