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Oyster Patties, Cordon Rouge

A baked oyster patty topped with puff pastry and herbs, served with watercress.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and chervil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 795 recipes mention both. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Oyster Patties, Cordon Rouge

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.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Line small deep patty pans with puff pastry.

  3. Add 1 teaspoon of cream to each pan.

Fill the patties

  1. Sprinkle with chopped parsley, tarragon, and chervil.

  2. Season with ground mace, cayenne, and grated nutmeg to taste.

  3. Place 2 trimmed oysters in each patty.

  4. Sprinkle with finely chopped lemon rind.

  5. Drizzle with lemon juice.

  6. Moisten with a little white wine.

  7. Cover with bread crumbs.

  8. Garnish with a ring of puff pastry.

  9. Place on baking sheets.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake until golden.

  2. Serve immediately.

  3. Garnish with watercress.

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. Tarragon + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together795 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mace + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Parsley + tarragontop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,118 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,062 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Puff pastry
Forms the crisp, flaky case and top ring that puff and brown in the oven.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, gently cooking the oysters in the patty.
Oysters
Provide the main seafood flavour and tender, briny filling.
Bread crumbs
Cover the filling and help soak up juices while the top browns.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich cream and seafood flavour.
White wine
Moistens the filling and adds a light acidic aroma as it heats.

The step that matters

Bake until golden. Oysters cook quickly and turn rubbery if overbaked, while the pastry needs enough heat to puff and brown. Watch closely so the pastry sets and the filling stays tender.

Flavor stand-ins for the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, parsley, tarragon, chervil, pepper, nutmeg, oyster):

  1. Marjorambetter flavor fit
  2. Thymebetter flavor fit
  3. Celerybetter flavor fit
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, parsley, tarragon, chervil, pepper, nutmeg, oyster. 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).

“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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