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Puffs of Larks

A pastry dish of larks stuffed with butter, oysters, pepper, salt, and cream, wrapped in bacon and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Puffs of Larks

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Prepare ½ pound of puff pastry according to your preferred recipe.

  2. Pluck and draw the larks.

Make the filling

  1. Brown the larks evenly in a pan with 2 tablespoons of butter.

  2. Remove the larks from the pan and drain them.

  3. Place a small lump of butter, chopped oysters, pepper, salt, and thick cream inside each lark.

  4. Truss each lark firmly.

  5. Wrap each lark in slices of fat bacon.

Assemble and bake

  1. Roll out the puff pastry to ¼ inch thick.

  2. Cover each lark neatly with puff pastry.

  3. Place the puffs side by side on a buttered baking tray.

  4. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 10 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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Oyster + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,886 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Oyster + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,663 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Puff pastry
Forms a flaky, crisp outer casing that browns in the oven.
Larks
Provide the main meat that the puffs are built around.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the larks brown in the pan.
Oysters
Add a briny, savoury flavour to the filling.
Thick cream
Adds moisture and richness to the inside of each lark.
Fat bacon
Bastes the larks as they cook and adds savoury fat.

The step that matters

Covering the larks with pastry. The pastry must be sealed fully around each lark and the puffs placed apart on the tray. Gaps let filling leak and stop the pastry rising and browning evenly in the oven.

“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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