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Oyster Bouillon

A clear broth made by simmering oysters with water, celery seed, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Oyster and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,184 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Oyster Bouillon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook

  1. Wash and chop the oysters.

  2. Place them in a double boiler, cover, and cook slowly for 1 hour.

  3. Add the water and celery seed.

Strain and serve

  1. Strain the mixture through two layers of cheesecloth.

  2. Reheat and stir in the butter 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. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  2. Oyster + celerytop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,131 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Celery + buttertop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main briny, savory flavor that forms the body of the bouillon.
Water
Extracts flavor from the oysters and makes up the liquid base of the bouillon.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished broth.

The step that matters

Cooking the oysters slowly over gentle heat. Slow, gentle heat in a double boiler keeps the liquid from boiling hard, which would toughen the oysters and make the broth cloudy and harsh. Gentle heat also draws out flavor more evenly.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, butter):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, butter. 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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