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Soup

Mock Oyster Soup

A soup made from vegetable oysters simmered with onion, parsley, and a butter‑flour milk sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Mock Oyster Soup

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mock Oyster Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scrape the vegetable oysters and place them in cold water with vinegar or lemon juice to prevent discoloration.

  2. Cut the vegetable oysters into thin slices and add them to a stew pan with boiling water, onion, and parsley.

Make the soup

  1. Cook slowly for 30 minutes or until tender.

  2. In a double boiler, combine the milk, butter, and flour rubbed together until smooth and thickened.

  3. Once the vegetable oysters are done, rub them through a colander and add to the double boiler.

  4. Season to taste and serve.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Vegetable oysters
Provide the main flavor and bulk of the soup as the star vegetable.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the soup and gives it a smooth, rich body.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor through the creamy base.
Flour
Thickens the milk and butter mixture so the soup becomes smooth and body-rich.

The step that matters

Rubbing the vegetable oysters through a colander. Pressing the cooked vegetables through a colander breaks them into a fine purée that blends smoothly into the milk. Skipping this step leaves fibrous pieces that make the soup grainy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, milk, butter, flour, pepper, parsley, vinegar. 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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