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Oyster Soup

A soup made with oysters, fish, stock, anchovies, flour, butter, cream, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Oyster Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Blanch the oysters slightly.

  2. Remove the gills and gristle from the oysters.

Make the stock

  1. Combine the gills and fish in the white stock.

  2. Boil the mixture for several hours.

  3. Add the washed anchovies.

  4. Strain the mixture.

Finish the soup

  1. Thicken the strained stock with flour and butter.

  2. Stir in the cream.

  3. Add the oysters, boiling them briefly in the soup.

  4. Pass the soup through a tammy.

  5. Season with cayenne pepper, salt, and sugar.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Fish + oystertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together496 recipes

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

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Flounders
Break down during long simmering to give the stock body and savoury depth.
Oysters
Provide the main briny, savoury flavour and tender texture when briefly boiled.
Flour
Thickens the strained stock, giving the soup a smooth, body-rich texture.
Butter
Combines with flour to form a roux that thickens the stock and adds richness.
Cream
Adds richness, mellowness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Anchovies
Add concentrated savoury depth that rounds out the stock's flavour.

The step that matters

Add the oysters, boiling them briefly in the soup. Oysters toughen and shrink when overcooked, so they should be heated only briefly until their edges curl and they are just cooked 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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