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Oyster Soup

A soup made by stewing chicken feet, onions, parsnip, anchovy, mace, cloves, peppercorns, lemon rind, mushrooms, and oysters, thickened with flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 4,172 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Oyster Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Stew the chicken feet in water for 2 hours with onion, parsnip, anchovy, mace, cloves, peppercorns, lemon rind, and mushrooms.

  2. Strain the mixture and remove the fat.

Finish the soup

  1. Add the oysters to the stewpan with the strained liquid, reserving a little to mix with flour for thickening.

  2. Simmer the oysters for 6-7 minutes until just cooked.

  3. In a tureen, combine sherry, lemon juice, essence of anchovy, garlic vinegar, tarragon vinegar, and cayenne.

  4. Add the thickened mixture to the soup and serve with fish forcemeat balls.

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. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  2. Parsnip + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together306 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Onion + parsniptop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Chickens' feet
Give the stock body and a rich, gelatinous texture as they stew.
Oysters
Provide the main flavour and tender texture when simmered just until cooked.
Flour
Thickens the reserved liquid so it lightly binds the soup.
Sherry
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth to the finished soup.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich broth.
Essence of anchovy
Adds savoury, salty depth to the soup.

The step that matters

Simmer the oysters for 6-7 minutes until just cooked. Oysters toughen and shrink when overcooked, so they should be heated only until their edges firm and they turn opaque.

Flavor stand-ins for the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, onion, parsnip, anchovy, clove, lemon, mushroom):

  1. Thymebetter flavor fit
  2. Garlicbetter flavor fit
  3. Marjorambetter flavor fit
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, onion, parsnip, anchovy, clove, lemon, mushroom. 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).

“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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