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Oyster Souffle

A baked oyster soufflé made with butter, flour, cream, anchovy essence, lemon juice, cayenne, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Oyster Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the base

  1. Blend the butter and flour in a saucepan over medium heat.

  2. Add the oyster liquor and cream, stirring until it boils.

  3. Remove from heat and mix in the anchovy essence, lemon juice, cayenne, and season with salt and pepper.

  4. Allow the mixture to cool slightly, then fold in the egg yolks.

Bake and serve

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then gently fold them into the mixture.

  2. Pour into a greased baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) until puffed and golden, about 20-25 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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Anchovy + eggtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour 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

Eggs
Whites beaten to stiff peaks trap air, lifting the soufflé as it bakes and sets.
Butter and flour
Cooked together they form a roux that thickens the cream into a stable base.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, forming the smooth body of the soufflé base.
Oysters
Provide the main oyster flavour; their liquor is added to the base.

The step that matters

Fold the egg whites gently. Stiff whites hold the air that makes the soufflé rise. Vigorous stirring knocks that air out, so the result bakes flat and dense.

“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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