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Oyster Soup

A savory soup made with oysters, fish broth, mushrooms, shallots, butter, flour, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and shallot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,982 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Oyster Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scald oysters in fish broth, then drain and strain the liquor.

  2. Open the can of mushrooms and pour the liquor into the broth.

  3. Mince mushrooms and shallots, then fry them in 2 tablespoons butter.

Make the soup

  1. Remove mushrooms and shallots from the pan, then add flour to the remaining butter to form a roux.

  2. Thin the roux with boiling broth until soup consistency.

  3. Season soup with salt, red pepper, mace, Harvey sauce, and Anchovy sauce.

  4. Add scalded oysters to the soup and serve with oyster crackers.

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. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  2. Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Oyster + fishtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together496 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Main protein that gives the soup its characteristic briny flavor.
Butter
Fat that carries flavor and, with flour, forms the roux that thickens the soup.
Flour
Thickener that, cooked with butter into a roux, gives the soup body.
Fish broth
Liquid base that forms the body of the soup.
Mushrooms
Add earthy savory flavor and substance to the soup.
Shallots
Add mild aromatic sweetness after frying in butter.

The step that matters

Thinning the roux with boiling broth. Adding liquid to a roux too quickly or unevenly can leave lumps. Adding the hot broth gradually while whisking lets the starch disperse evenly and thicken the soup smoothly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, fish, mushroom, shallot, butter, flour, pepper):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, fish, mushroom, shallot, butter, flour, pepper. 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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