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Oyster Soup

A savory soup made with oysters, ham, onions, egg yolks, flour, milk, butter, celery, herbs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Oyster Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a large pot, combine 3 quarts of water, 8 slices of ham, and 2 onions; boil until reduced to 1½ quarts.

  2. Strain the mixture through a colander, returning the liquid to the pot and bringing it to a boil.

Thicken and season

  1. In a bowl, beat the yolks of 6 eggs with 4 tablespoons of flour and 1 pint of milk.

  2. Stir the egg mixture into the boiling oyster liquor.

  3. Add 1 quart of raw oysters and let the soup thicken slightly over heat.

  4. Season with 1 teaspoon of white pepper and ½ of grated nutmeg.

Finish and serve

  1. In a separate pot, melt 2 tablespoons of butter, add chopped celery and sweet herbs, and sauté briefly.

  2. Combine the sautéed mixture with the soup just before serving.

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Oyster + hamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together360 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Onion + wheattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together858 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the soup and enrich its texture as they set with gentle heat.
Wheat flour
Helps thicken the milk and egg mixture, giving the soup body.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess to the soup base.
Oysters
Provide the main flavor and tender bite of the soup.
Ham
Lends savory, salty depth to the broth.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor from the sautéed vegetables and herbs.

The step that matters

Stir the egg mixture into the boiling oyster liquor. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if they hit very hot liquid too quickly. Blending them with flour and milk first, and keeping the soup at a gentle heat, helps them thicken smoothly.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, ham, onion, egg, wheat, flour, milk):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, ham, onion, egg, wheat, flour, milk. 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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