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Oyster Soup

A simple soup made with canned oysters, water, crushed crackers, pepper, sea salt, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Drain the juice from the oysters and place it in a pot.

  2. Add ½ cup of water and the crushed cracker.

  3. Season with pepper, coarse sea salt, and butter.

  4. Heat until the juice is scalded.

Finish the soup

  1. Drop in the oysters and cook until the edges curl.

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. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Oyster + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,663 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main flavor and tender texture once cooked until the edges curl.
Cracker
Thickens the broth slightly as its starch absorbs liquid and softens.
Butter
Adds richness and a rounded mouthfeel to the broth.

The step that matters

Cooking the oysters until the edges curl. Oysters turn firm and rubbery when overcooked, so they should be added last and cooked only until the edges curl.

“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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