Name: Oyster Soup
Ingredients: 10 hard-boiled eggs; 1 pint oysters; ½ cup butter; 2 tablespoons flour; 1 lemon; 6 raw egg yolks; salt to taste

Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and 124,287 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Oyster Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Strain the soup made from the first recipe.
In a mortar, beat the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs with the hard parts of the oysters.
Add this mixture, along with the oyster liquor and remaining oysters, to the strained soup.
Let the soup simmer for about 30 minutes.
Beat the raw egg yolks and add them to the soup.
Stir the mixture over low heat until thick and smooth, ensuring it does not boil.

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.

Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together8,184 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Egg + oystertop 14% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together4,103 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, oyster, butter, flour):

Raisinbetter flavor fit
Lemonthe original
Vanillaabout as good a flavor fit
Figabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, oyster, butter, flour. 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).