Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 81,283 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Oyster Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Boil 2 quarts of milk in a milk boiler.
Drain the liquor from 2 quarts of oysters.
Make the soup
Pour the oyster liquor into a kettle with ½ pint of boiling water and skim until clear.
Add the oysters and butter to the kettle.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Let it boil thoroughly for a few moments.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together8,184 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together4,103 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together88,785 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
- Milk
- Forms the creamy base and gives the soup its body.
- Oysters
- Provide the main flavor and briny character of the soup.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the soup.
The step that matters
Boiling the oysters. Oysters are delicate. Prolonged, vigorous boiling causes their proteins to tighten, making them shrink and turn tough and rubbery. Add them late and keep the heat gentle once they are in the kettle.
“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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