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Farina Croustades

A baked pastry shell made from farina, filled with diced hard‑boiled eggs, mushrooms, parsley, and brown sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Farina Croustades

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the farina base

  1. Bring 1 quart of water to a scalding hot temperature in a double boiler and add 1 teaspoon of salt.

  2. Gradually stir in 1½ cups of farina and cook until very thick.

  3. Spread the mixture on a buttered flat dish to about 1½ inches thick and let it cool completely.

  4. Cut out rounds with a cutter and scoop out some of the center to create cups.

Bake and fill

  1. Brush the tops with the egg yolk and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden brown.

  2. For the filling, mix the diced hard-boiled eggs with salt, cayenne, chopped parsley, and the halved mushrooms.

  3. Add enough well-seasoned brown sauce to moisten the mixture.

  4. Fill the croustades with the egg mixture and serve, passing extra filling or sauce in a gravy boat.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

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

  4. Mushroom + saucetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,480 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  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

Farina
Forms the thick, firm base that holds its shape as a cup.
Egg yolk
Brushed on top, it enriches the surface and helps it turn golden in the oven.
Hard boiled eggs
Provide the soft, rich body of the filling.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and a bit of texture to the filling.
Brown sauce
Moistens the filling so it is savoury and not dry.

The step that matters

Cooking the farina until very thick. Farina must be cooked long enough to thicken fully, because starch gelatinises as it heats. A thick, cooled mass sets firm enough to cut and scoop, while a loose mixture will not hold its cup shape in the oven.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, pepper, mushroom, sauce):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, mushroom, sauce. 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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