Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Oyster Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the oysters
Seal the oysters in their own liquor until plump or the gills begin to curl, then remove them.
Add 1 cup of water to the oyster liquor.
Make the soup
Make a paste with the butter and flour, using a little of the liquor until smooth.
Stir in the scalded cream and season with salt, pepper, and cayenne.
Add the oysters back to the mixture and heat gently.
Serve immediately.
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.
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,184 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Oyster + creamtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,886 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 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
- Oysters
- Their briny flesh and liquor give the soup its main flavour and tender texture.
- Butter
- Fat that carries flavour and enriches the soup, and with flour forms the thickening paste.
- Flour
- Thickens the liquid when cooked with butter, giving the soup body.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the soup.
The step that matters
Heat the oysters gently after adding them back. Oysters toughen and shrink when overheated, so they should be warmed only until heated through and their edges just 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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