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Oyster Souffle

A savory soufflé made with whitefish, oysters, eggs, and anchovy essence.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 whitings, 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 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 flavourings

  1. Remove the gills 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 yolks of the eggs, anchovy essence, and pounded fish.

Fold and steam

  1. Whisk the egg whites to a stiff froth and carefully fold them into the mixture.

  2. Three-quarters fill a well-buttered soufflé dish or Charlotte mold 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
Yolks enrich and bind the base, while whipped whites lift the soufflé with trapped air.
Flour
Cooked with butter, it thickens the milk into a stable base that holds the soufflé together.
Butter
Fat that forms the roux with flour and adds richness and smooth flavour.
Milk
Liquid that hydrates the flour and sets into a creamy, tender custard structure.
Whitings
Pounded white fish meat that adds body and a delicate savoury flavour to the mixture.
Oysters
Diced oysters add briny, savoury flavour and soft texture throughout the soufflé.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites whipped to a stiff froth trap air that expands with heat. Folding gently, rather than stirring, keeps that air from collapsing, so the soufflé rises instead of turning dense.

“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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