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Peanut Soup with Oysters

A soup made from peanuts, flour, water, red pepper, salt, and oysters.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Peanut and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,048 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Peanut Soup with Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the peanuts as directed in the previous recipe.

  2. Blend the flour with the cold water until smooth.

Make the soup

  1. In a saucepan, combine the flour mixture with the boiling water or milk and water.

  2. Add the red pepper and salt, then boil for 15 minutes, stirring to prevent burning.

  3. Carefully add the oysters and let the soup boil once.

  4. Serve immediately.

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. Peanut + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,048 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Peanut + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,427 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Peanut + peppertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together668 recipes

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

  5. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Peanuts
Form the body and rich, nutty flavor of the soup.
Flour
Thickens the soup by swelling in liquid as it heats.
Oysters
Add delicate briny flavor and tender texture to the soup.

The step that matters

Stirring while the soup boils for 15 minutes. Peanut purée and flour settle and scorch easily on the bottom of the pan. Constant stirring prevents burning and keeps the soup smooth and evenly thickened.

Swap the peanut

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

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Walnutfits better
  4. Peanutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, pepper, oyster. 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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