Why it works: Oyster and egg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 4,093 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Plain Oyster Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Rinse the oysters in a colander with 1 pint of cold water.
In a porcelain kettle, combine the rinsed oysters and 1 pint of boiling water.
Bring to a boil.
Skim thoroughly.
Cook and serve
Season with pepper.
Add the butter.
Remove all shells from the oysters.
Add the shelled oysters to the kettle.
Let it boil once more.
Season with coarse sea salt.
Serve.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Oyster + eggtop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together4,093 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Oyster + buttertop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together8,175 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Egg + buttertop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together118,511 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Pepper + buttertop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together85,512 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Oyster + peppertop 12% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together7,651 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
- Provide the main flavor and body of the soup, releasing their briny liquor as they cook.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the broth.
The step that matters
Add the shelled oysters and let it boil once more. Oysters cook quickly, and prolonged boiling toughens their flesh and makes them shrink and rubbery. Brief heating is enough to warm them through.
“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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