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To Make Puff Paste Crusts Plain or with Fluted Cutter

A method for making puff pastry crusts, plain or with a fluted cutter, using butter, raw rice, and egg wash.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,645 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

To Make Puff Paste Crusts Plain or with Fluted Cutter

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Shape the crusts

  1. Roll out the puff paste into round or oval shapes of desired size.

  2. Arrange the shapes on a moist baking sheet, spaced apart.

  3. Prick the shapes with a fork.

  4. Moisten the edges with a brush. Apply a band of puff paste around the edges, about ⅜ inch thick.

  5. Fasten the ends of the band together.

  6. Brush the surface with egg wash.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until golden.

  2. Place the crusts in buttered rings or surround them with buttered paper and fill with raw rice.

  3. Once cooked, remove from the rings. Empty the rice.

  4. Brush the crusts with egg wash.

  5. Return to the oven to color nicely.

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 + ricetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

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

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Rice + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,350 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

What each ingredient does

Puff paste
Its layers of fat and dough puff into flaky, airy walls as steam forms during baking.
Butter
Greases the rings or paper so the pastry releases cleanly and browns evenly.
Raw rice
Weights the shapes during baking so the centres stay flat instead of rising.
Egg wash
Promotes browning and a glossy golden surface on the pastry.

The step that matters

Weighting the crusts with rice. Puff pastry rises strongly as steam forms. Without the rice weight in buttered rings or paper, the centres can puff unevenly and the shapes can distort. Fill evenly and keep the rice level so the crusts bake flat and even.

“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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