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Soup

Cream of Oysters

A creamy soup made with chicken stock, celery, onion, oyster liquor, oysters, butter, flour, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cream of Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Combine chicken stock, minced celery, and minced onion in a pot, simmer, and strain the mixture.

Make the cream

  1. Add oyster liquor and chopped oysters to the strained stock and bring to a boil.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix butter and flour to create a paste, then stir it into the boiling mixture.

  3. Gradually add milk, stirring continuously until thickened, then season with salt and pepper to taste.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main seafood flavor and tender texture in the finished soup.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and smooths the soup.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the liquid into a creamy body when cooked with the butter.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness, softening the savory stock.
Chicken stock
Forms the savory liquid base that the other ingredients are cooked in.

The step that matters

Thickening the milk. Adding the milk too quickly or at too high a heat can cause the starch to clump or the milk to scorch. Adding it gradually while stirring keeps the soup smooth and evenly thickened.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, onion, oyster, butter, flour, milk, 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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