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Soup

Oysters a LA Creme

A creamy oyster soup made with oysters, stock, cream, butter, flour, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Oyster and butter match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 8,175 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Open the oysters carefully, ensuring no shell fragments are present.

  2. Put the oysters and their liquor into a saucepan and bring to a boil to set them.

  3. Remove the oysters and strain the liquor through a fine colander.

  4. Remove the gills from the oysters and place them in a basin with their liquor.

Make the stock

  1. Stew the gills in the White Stock for 20 minutes, then strain.

  2. Combine the strained stock with the oyster liquor and cream.

Thicken and finish

  1. Thicken the mixture with butter and flour, mixed smoothly and added gradually.

  2. If large, cut the oysters in half and add them to the soup.

  3. Heat the soup thoroughly, then add Searcy Salt and salt to taste before serving.

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. Oyster + buttertop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together8,175 recipes

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

  2. Cream + buttertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together41,494 recipes

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together122,858 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Oyster + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,883 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Cream + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together29,941 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 122,858 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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main flavour and tender texture of the soup.
Heavy cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety body to the soup.
Butter and flour
Form a roux that thickens the soup and gives it body.
White stock
Forms the savoury liquid base that carries the oyster flavour.

The step that matters

Thickening with butter and flour. Flour added to hot liquid clumps unless it is first blended smoothly with butter and added gradually, so the soup stays silky and even.

“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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