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Oyster Patties

A puff pastry shell filled with oysters, baked and then parboiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,047 recipes mention both. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Oyster Patties

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Preheat and make the filling

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

  2. In a pan, melt the butter and mix in the flour.

  3. Add the cream, veal stock, nutmeg, lemon peel, cayenne pepper, salt, essence of ham, and lemon juice. Stir over heat until combined.

Assemble the patties

  1. Roll out puff pastry to ¼ inch thick and cut into squares.

  2. Line eight or ten small patty pans with the pastry and place a small piece of bread in each.

  3. Roll out another layer of pastry, cut it to size, wet the edges of the bottom pastry, and place the top layer on.

  4. Trim and notch the edges with a knife, brush with egg yolk, and bake for about 15 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Once baked, remove the top, scoop out the bread and inside pastry, and parboil the oysters.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,047 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Forms the fat base of the roux and adds rich flavour to the filling.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cream mixture so the filling holds its shape.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the filling.
Veal stock
Adds savoury depth and meaty body to the filling.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce.
Oysters
Provide the main seafood element and a briny flavour.

The step that matters

Parboil the oysters briefly. Oyster protein tightens when heated, so a long simmer makes them firm, rubbery, and shrunken. Brief parboiling keeps them tender while the patty is finished.

“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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