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Oyster Soup

A hearty soup of veal stock, oysters, vegetables, and a creamy egg yolk mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsnip and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 590 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Oyster Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Combine the veal and water in a soup pot.

  2. Skim off scum as the mixture approaches boiling.

  3. Add chopped celery, parsnip, turnip, onion, and mace.

  4. Boil for 3–4 hours.

  5. Strain the solids.

Add the oysters

  1. In a small saucepan, bring the oysters and their liquor to a boil.

  2. Strain the oyster liquor and add it to the soup pot.

  3. Remove the gills from the oysters and set them aside.

  4. Add the gills to the soup pot.

Thicken and serve

  1. In a bowl, mix the butter, flour, and milk.

  2. Gradually dilute the mixture with the stock and add to the pot.

  3. Boil for 10 minutes.

  4. In another bowl, mix the egg yolks and cream.

  5. Gradually add a ladleful of hot soup to the eggs while stirring.

  6. Remove the pot from heat.

  7. Stir in the egg mixture and halved oysters.

  8. Season with salt and pepper.

  9. Serve.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Parsnip + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together590 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Celery + parsniptop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together561 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 body of the soup.
Veal knuckle
Gives the stock a rich, savoury body during the long simmer.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour in the roux.
Flour or cornflour
Thickens the soup by swelling with heat when mixed with butter and liquid.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the soup as they gently set with the cream.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Adding the egg mixture. Egg yolks can curdle if they meet hot liquid directly. Tempering them with a ladleful of hot soup while stirring, then removing the pot from heat before adding them, lets them thicken smoothly.

Flavor stand-ins for the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, celery, parsnip, turnip, veal, onion, butter):

  1. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  2. Capersbetter flavor fit
  3. Thymebetter flavor fit
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, celery, parsnip, turnip, veal, onion, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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