Skip to main content
Main

Oyster Patties

A puff pastry shell filled with oyster and mushroom mixture, baked and served.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and lemon 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.

Prepare the cases

  1. Roll out the puff pastry to ½ inch thick and cut into rounds with a cutter.

  2. Use a smaller cutter to press the center of each round to a depth of ¼ inch.

  3. Place the rounds on a baking sheet and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 7-10 minutes until browned.

  4. Remove the patties from the oven, take out the small center piece, and scoop out a little of the inside.

Make the filling

  1. Fry the mushrooms in the butter for 8-10 minutes, then remove them.

  2. In the same pan, add the flour, cream, oyster liquor, salt, pepper, cayenne, and nutmeg; stir and boil well.

  3. Add the oysters (cleaned and halved) and lemon juice; mix well.

Assemble and serve

  1. Fill each patty case with the mixture and place the small piece of pastry on top.

  2. Arrange on a dish and serve.

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. Pepper + lemontop 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. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Puff pastry
Its layers puff and crisp when baked, forming the hollow case.
Butter
Fat that carries flavor and helps the mushrooms brown while frying.
Flour
Thickens the cream and liquor into a smooth, stable sauce.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the filling, softening the sauce.
Oysters
Main filling; they firm slightly with heat and add a briny flavor.
Button mushrooms
Add earthy flavor and a meaty texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Boil the sauce well before adding the oysters. Boiling the flour and cream thickens the sauce by gelatinizing the starch, so it holds the filling together. Adding oysters too early or overcooking them toughens their texture.

“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.

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesMushroom SoupMushroom Soup60 recipesMock Oyster SoupMock Oyster Soup21 recipesCorn FrittersCorn Fritters6 recipes