Why it works: Fish and oyster work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and 496 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Oyster Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the broth
In a mortar, beat the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs and the hard parts of the oysters.
Add this mixture to the fish stock and simmer for 30 minutes.
Strain the soup and return it to the pot with the cleaned oysters.
Simmer for 5 minutes.
Finish and serve
Beat the raw egg yolks and stir them into the soup, mixing well without boiling until thick and smooth.
Serve hot.
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.
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Fish + oystertop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together496 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Egg + oystertop 14% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together4,103 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Fish + peppertop 21% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together3,948 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Oyster + peppertop 22% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together7,663 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Fish + eggtop 22% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,782 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Hard-boiled egg yolks
- Crushed into the stock, they thicken the broth and add a rich, creamy body.
- Raw egg yolks
- Stirred in off the heat, they set into a thick, smooth liaison that enriches the soup.
- Oysters
- Provide the main seafood flavor, with their hard parts adding depth to the broth.
- Fish stock
- Forms the liquid base that carries the flavor of the whole soup.
The step that matters
Adding the raw egg yolks. Raw yolks set when heated, so if the soup boils they can curdle and turn grainy. Stir them in gently, keeping the soup below a boil, so they thicken it smoothly.
“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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