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Oyster Souffle

A savory souffle made with whitefish, oysters, eggs, butter, flour, milk, cream, and anchovy essence.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Whiting and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 236 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Oyster Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Skin the whitings.

  2. Remove the meat from the bones.

  3. Pound the meat in a mortar.

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the flour. Cook without browning.

  3. Moisten with the milk and oyster liquor. Stir until smooth.

  4. Add the cream. Cook a little longer, stirring continuously.

Add the oysters and seasoning

  1. Remove the gills from the oysters. Cut them into dice. Add to the mixture.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

Finish the soufflé and serve

  1. Mix in the egg yolks. Mix in the anchovy essence. Mix in the pounded fish.

  2. Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks. Fold them into the mixture.

  3. Fill a well-buttered soufflé tin or Charlotte mould three-quarters full. Steam for about 45 minutes.

  4. Remove from the mold. Serve with a white sauce.

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. Whiting + saucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together236 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Whiting + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together82 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Oyster + anchovytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together603 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg whites whisked to stiff peaks trap air, lifting the soufflé as it cooks.
Flour
Cooked in butter to form a roux that thickens the milk into a stable base.
Butter
Enriches the roux and adds richness and flavour to the base.
Milk
Liquid that, thickened with the roux, forms the body of the soufflé base.
Whitings
Pounded white fish meat that gives the soufflé its main body and flavour.
Oysters
Diced oysters and their liquor add briny flavour and moisture to the mixture.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air beaten into the whites. Stirring or deflating them makes the soufflé heavy and stops it rising properly.

“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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