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Oyster Souffle

A steamed fish and oyster mixture thickened with flour and butter, folded with eggs and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Blanch and remove gills from the oysters, cutting each into four pieces.

Make the base

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and mix in the flour over medium heat.

  2. Add the oyster liquor and stir until thickened and the flour is cooked.

Build the mixture

  1. Transfer the mixture to a mortar, add the whitings, and pound together.

  2. Incorporate the eggs one at a time, adding salt and cayenne pepper.

  3. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve and gently fold in the oysters and whipped cream.

Steam and serve

  1. Butter a mold, pour in the mixture, cover with buttered paper, and steam for 30 minutes.

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

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

  2. Fish + oystertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together496 recipes

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

  3. Whiting + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together135 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Eggs
Set the soufflé structure as they cook, lifting and holding the mixture together.
Flour
Thickens the butter and liquor into a base that supports the rest of the mixture.
Whitings
Provide the main fish body, pounded into the base for a light, tender texture.
Oysters
Add the oyster flavour and tender pieces throughout the soufflé.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the soufflé light and soft.

The step that matters

Incorporate the eggs one at a time. Adding eggs gradually lets each one blend fully into the base, so the mixture stays smooth and holds air for a light rise. Dumping them in together can cause lumps or a dense result.

“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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