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Oyster Souffle

A steamed souffle made with oysters, whiting, eggs, flour, butter, cream, and oyster liquor.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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

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

  2. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.

  3. Mix in the flour.

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

Make the soufflé base

  1. Transfer the mixture to a mortar.

  2. Add the whiting meat and pound together.

  3. Incorporate the eggs one at a time, along with a little salt and cayenne pepper.

  4. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve.

  5. Gently fold in the oysters and whipped cream.

Steam and serve

  1. Butter a mold.

  2. Pour the mixture into the mold.

  3. Cover with buttered paper.

  4. 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. 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

Whiting fish
Provides the light, delicate body of the soufflé when pounded and sieved smooth.
Oysters
Add the main flavour and a tender, moist texture throughout the custard.
Eggs
Set during gentle steaming to give the soufflé its structure and lift.
Flour
Thickens the butter and liquor into a base that holds the mixture together.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the soufflé soft after steaming.

The step that matters

Pass the mixture through a fine sieve. Sieving breaks down fibres from the pounded fish and any lumps of flour, giving a smooth, even texture. Skipping it can leave a grainy soufflé.

“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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