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Oyster Patties

A pastry dish of oysters folded into puff pastry and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Oyster Patties

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the pastry

  1. Combine flour and ¾ pound of butter in a bowl, chopping half the butter into the flour.

  2. Beat the egg and stir it into the mixture, adding ice water to form a dough.

  3. Roll out the dough thinly, spread the remaining butter on top, fold it in, and roll out again.

  4. Repeat the folding and rolling process until all the butter is used, then chill the dough.

Prepare the oysters

  1. Strain the oysters to remove any shell bits and place them in a double boiler with just enough liquid to prevent sticking.

  2. Bring to a boil, skim off any foam, and stir in a little butter and pepper; if needed, add thick cream.

Assemble and bake

  1. Roll out the puff pastry and line small tins with it.

  2. Place 3-4 oysters in each tin, adding some of the cooking liquid, then cover with a top crust.

  3. Bake for 20 minutes at 400°F (200°C). If desired, glaze the top with a beaten egg and return to the oven for 1-2 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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Egg + oystertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

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

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the dough structure that holds the layers of butter and pastry together.
Butter
Folded into the dough in layers, it creates flaky, separated pastry layers as it melts in the oven.
Egg
Adds richness and helps bind the dough together.
Oysters
Provide the main filling, adding briny flavor and tender texture.
Thick rich cream
Adds richness and body to the oyster liquid when needed.

The step that matters

Folding and chilling the dough. Butter must stay in distinct cold layers between the rolled dough; if it softens and blends in, the pastry loses its flakiness. Chilling firms the butter before baking.

“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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