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Oyster Soup

A savory soup made with veal, plaice, oysters, milk, cream, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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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

Make the stocks

  1. Cut the veal and place it in a pot with the onion, bay leaf, and a little coarse sea salt.

  2. Add 1 quart of cold water and simmer for 4 hours.

  3. Strain the stock, let it cool, then remove the fat.

  4. Place the plaice in another pot with 1 quart of cold water and simmer until the flesh falls apart.

  5. Strain the plaice, then press it through a sieve.

  6. Combine the veal and plaice stocks.

Finish the soup

  1. Add the oyster liquor, milk, and anchovy sauce and bring to a boil.

  2. Mix the cornflour with a little water to make a paste.

  3. Add the paste along with the butter, pepper, salt, and cayenne.

  4. Simmer for 2-3 minutes.

  5. Cut the oysters in half and add them to the boiling soup.

  6. Remove from heat immediately and stir in the cream.

  7. Serve.

  8. Optionally, simmer the oyster beards in a little water, strain them, and add the liquor to the soup.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Oyster + anchovytop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together603 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle
Its bones and connective tissue give the stock body and a rich, savoury base.
Plaice
Its flesh breaks down into the stock, adding flavour and body when pressed through a sieve.
Oysters
They add a briny, sea-like flavour and tender bite to the soup.
Cornflour
Its starch swells in hot liquid, thickening the soup into a smooth body.
Butter
It adds fat for richness and a rounded, mellow mouthfeel.
Cream
Stirred in at the end, it adds richness and a silky texture.

The step that matters

Add the oysters and remove from heat immediately. Oysters toughen and shrink when overheated. Adding them to the boiling soup and taking the pot off the heat right away keeps them tender and plump.

Flavor stand-ins for the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, onion, milk, cream, butter, oyster, anchovy):

  1. Capersbetter flavor fit
  2. Garlicbetter flavor fit
  3. Celerybetter flavor fit
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, onion, milk, cream, butter, oyster, anchovy. 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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