Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Oyster Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the oysters
Wash the oysters in cold water (1 quart if solid, 1 pint if liquid).
Drain the water through a colander into a kettle.
Bring the kettle to a boil, skimming carefully.
Make the soup
In another pot, bring 1 quart of milk to a boil.
Once boiling, thicken the milk with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch mixed with a little cold milk.
Add the boiling oyster liquor and the oysters to the thickened milk.
Stir in ¼ cup of butter.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,184 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Oyster + milktop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,933 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together26,984 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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 texture of the soup.
- Milk
- Forms the creamy base of the soup.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the milk so the soup becomes smooth and creamy.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the soup.
The step that matters
Thicken the milk before adding the oysters. Cornstarch must be mixed with cold milk first and fully boiled into the hot milk to thicken evenly without lumps. Starch needs heat to swell and set, so it should be stirred until the milk thickens before the oysters go in.
“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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