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Oyster Soup

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 16,012 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Oyster Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the knuckle of veal with onion, mace, red peppers, celery leaves, and salt in 4 quarts of water until the meat is boiled to shreds.

  2. Strain the liquid and let it cool. Skim off the fat and discard any grounds at the bottom.

  3. Put the jelly over the fire and bring to a boil.

  4. Add the cream and milk, then thicken with flour or powdered oyster crackers blended to a cream-like consistency.

  5. Stir until thickened, then add the oysters and stir constantly for 3-4 minutes.

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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Celery + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together6,905 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 78,219 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, onion, pepper, celery, cream, milk, flour):

  1. Turmericbetter flavor fit
  2. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  3. Nutmegbetter flavor fit
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, onion, pepper, celery, cream, milk, flour. 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).

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