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Oyster Soup

A creamy soup made with oysters, celery, milk, butter, and cracker crumbs.

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 ↓

Oyster Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scald 1 pint of milk in a double boiler.

  2. Wash and cut up the celery, then boil it in 1 pint of boiling salted water.

  3. In a bowl, combine the oysters with 1 cup of cold water and pick over them carefully.

  4. Strain the oyster liquor into a saucepan and bring it to a boil, removing any scum.

  5. Mash the cooked celery in the water it was boiled in and strain it into the oyster liquor, ensuring you have 1 pint of liquid.

Make the soup

  1. Melt the butter and mix in the cracker crumbs, then add some of the milk until thin enough to pour into the oyster soup.

  2. Add the mace and cook for 5 minutes.

  3. Stir in the remaining milk and the oysters, cooking until the oysters are plump, about 1 minute.

  4. Optionally, add 1/4 cup of hot cream.

  5. Season with salt and pepper and 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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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

Oysters
Provide the main flavour and tender texture once cooked until plump.
Milk
Forms the creamy body of the soup and carries the flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and helps cook the cracker crumbs smoothly.
Cracker crumbs
Thicken the soup as they absorb liquid and swell when warmed with butter and milk.
Celery
Lends a fresh, vegetal aroma and savoury flavour to the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Cooking the oysters. Oysters turn firm and rubbery if overcooked, so they should only be heated briefly until plump and then served right away.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, celery, oyster, butter, pepper, cream. 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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