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Oyster Souffle

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Whiting and sauce 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 base

  1. Skin the whiting, remove all the meat from the bones, and pound it in a mortar.

  2. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour, and cook for a minute without browning.

  3. Moisten with the milk and oyster liquor, stirring briskly until smooth, then add the cream.

  4. Cook a little longer while stirring continuously.

Add the oysters and seasoning

  1. Remove the beards from the oysters, cut them into dice, and add to the mixture.

  2. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, then work in the yolk of the egg and the anchovy essence.

Fold, steam and serve

  1. Whisk the egg white to stiff peaks and gently fold it into the mixture.

  2. Fill a well-greased soufflé dish or Charlotte mold three-quarters full and steam for about 45 minutes.

  3. Remove from the mold and 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. Whiting + saucetop 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
The yolk enriches the base and the whisked white lifts the soufflé as it sets.
Flour
Forms a roux with the butter that thickens the milk into a stable, smooth base.
Butter
Fat in the roux that carries flavour and helps create a smooth, rich texture.
Milk
Liquid that, with the cream, thickens into the custard-like body of the soufflé.
Oysters
Provide the main seafood flavour and tender, moist pieces throughout the soufflé.
Whiting
Pounded fish meat adds body and a delicate seafood flavour to the base.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg white. Stiff whites hold air that makes the soufflé rise. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring or deflating it leaves a dense 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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