Skip to main content
Main

Oyster Soufflé

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Oyster and anchovy work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 603 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Oyster Soufflé

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.

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, then remove from heat.

  3. Stir in the anchovy essence, lemon juice, and cayenne.

  4. If desired, add a hint of mace or nutmeg, or chopped parsley.

Add the oysters and eggs

  1. Prepare the oysters by cutting large ones into quarters and small ones in half.

  2. Gently fold the oysters into the mixture without chopping them.

  3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff, then fold them into the mixture.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

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

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

Oysters
Provide the main flavour and tender, briny pieces throughout the soufflé.
Butter
Adds richness and, cooked with flour, forms the base that thickens the mixture.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cream into a smooth base that holds the oysters.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, giving the base a soft, creamy texture.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff foam, they trap air so the soufflé rises and becomes light.
Egg yolks
Enrich the base and help it set firmly when baked.

The step that matters

Fold in the stiff egg whites gently. Whipped whites hold air bubbles that make the soufflé rise. Vigorous stirring knocks out that air, so the bake comes out flat and dense. Fold with a light, lifting motion until just combined.

Swap the mace

The recipe marks mace as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, butter, flour, cream, egg, anchovy, lemon):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, butter, flour, cream, egg, anchovy, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesMock Oyster SoupMock Oyster Soup21 recipesCorn FrittersCorn Fritters6 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipes