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Rissoles of Oysters

A pastry turnover filled with blanched oysters, coated in breadcrumbs and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Oyster and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,545 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Rissoles of Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut each oyster into six pieces and let them cool on a dish.

  2. Roll out the puff pastry very thin and place pieces of oyster on it, about the size of a walnut.

Shape and coat

  1. Fold the pastry over the oysters and cut out with a round cutter to form turnovers.

  2. Brush the tops with egg and coat in bread crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat hot lard or oil in a stewpan and fry the rissoles until light brown.

  2. Serve on a napkin garnished with fried parsley.

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 + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main savoury filling, cooked briefly inside the pastry.
Puff pastry trimmings
Form the thin, flaky casing that encloses the filling and crisps when fried.
Egg
Brushed on the tops to help the bread crumbs adhere and promote golden browning.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer coating during frying.

The step that matters

Frying the turnovers. Oil or lard must be hot enough to brown the coating quickly. If it is too cool, the crumbs absorb fat and turn greasy before the pastry is cooked through.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, egg, bread):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, egg, bread. 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.

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