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Oyster Souffle

A savory soufflé made with oysters, whitefish, flour, butter, milk, cream, anchovy essence, eggs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and whiting match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 236 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Oyster Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish and oysters

  1. Skin the whitings.

  2. Remove the meat from the bones.

  3. Pound the meat in a mortar.

  4. Remove the gills from the oysters.

  5. Cut the oysters into dice.

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the flour.

  3. Cook without browning.

  4. Moisten with the milk and oyster liquor.

  5. Stir until smooth.

  6. Add the cream.

  7. Cook a little longer while stirring continuously.

  8. Add the diced oysters to the mixture.

  9. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  10. Mix in the egg yolks, anchovy essence, and pounded fish.

Bake and serve

  1. Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks.

  2. Gently fold the egg whites into the mixture.

  3. Fill a well-buttered soufflé dish three-quarters full.

  4. Steam for about 45 minutes.

  5. Remove from the dish.

  6. Serve with a white sauce.

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. Sauce + whitingtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together236 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Whiting + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together82 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg whites whipped to stiff peaks give the soufflé its light, risen structure, while yolks enrich it.
Flour
Cooked with butter, it forms a roux that thickens the base and gives the soufflé body.
Butter
Melted with the flour to make the roux, adding richness and flavour to the base.
Milk
Moistens the roux into a smooth, thick base that carries the other ingredients.
Sauce oysters
Diced and folded into the base, they add the main seafood flavour and some moisture.

The step that matters

Fold the egg whites gently. Whites whipped to stiff peaks trap air that makes the soufflé rise. Stirring or deflating them vigorously knocks out this air, leaving a dense, flat result.

“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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