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Oyster Soufflé

A steamed oyster soufflé made with oysters, butter, flour, oyster liquor, eggs, cream, and spices.

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 Soufflé

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Remove the gills from the oysters and cut each into four pieces.

Make the base

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and flour over medium heat, then add the oyster liquor and stir until thickened.

  2. In a mortar, combine the sauce and oyster meat, then pound together.

  3. Add the egg yolks one at a time, along with salt, cayenne pepper, and cream, mixing thoroughly.

Finish and steam

  1. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold into the mixture, then add the oysters.

  2. Butter a mold, pour in the mixture, cover with buttered paper, and steam gently 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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

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

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 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

Egg whites
Beaten to stiff peaks, they trap air and give the soufflé its light, risen structure.
Egg yolks
They enrich the base and help it set into a tender, custard-like texture.
Butter and flour
Cooked together they form a roux that thickens the liquor into a smooth base.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the mixture soft and smooth.
Oysters
Provide the main flavour and tender pieces of seafood throughout the soufflé.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Beaten whites hold air that makes the soufflé rise. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring or deflating the whites makes the soufflé heavy and dense.

“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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