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Oyster Soup

A broth made from veal, carrots, onions, and oysters, thickened with butter and flour, finished with white wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Oyster Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Place the shin of veal in a pot with water, carrots, onions, pepper, and salt.

  2. Boil for 3 hours.

  3. Strain through a sieve.

Finish the soup

  1. In a separate bowl, mix butter and flour until smooth.

  2. Stir the mixture into the strained broth.

  3. Bring the soup to a boil.

  4. Add the cleaned oysters and white wine to the soup.

  5. Bring the soup to a boil again.

  6. Serve very hot.

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. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Butter and flour
Thickens the broth into a smooth, rich soup as the mixture heats.
Oysters
Provide the main flavor and tender texture of the finished soup.
White wine
Adds acidity that brightens the rich broth.
Shin of veal
Simmers for hours to release body and savory flavor into the broth.

The step that matters

Adding the oysters and wine. Oysters cook quickly and turn tough and rubbery if they boil for long, so they should be added near the end and heated only until done.

Swap the carrot

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, onion, pepper, butter, flour, oyster, white wine. 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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