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Shrimp Patties

A puff pastry shell filled with shrimp, mace, clove, anchovies, and dry wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,400 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Shrimp 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.

Prepare the pastry

  1. Roll out the puff pastry to ½ inch thick and cut into 2 to 3 inch rounds.

  2. Dip a smaller cutter in hot water and press it into the center of each round, about halfway through.

  3. Brush the edges with egg yolk and bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden.

  4. Remove the inner circle and soft parts from the center.

Fill and serve

  1. In a bowl, mix the shrimp with mace, clove, minced anchovies, and dry wine.

  2. Fill the pastry shells with the shrimp mixture.

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. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. Clove + winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: cis-isoeugenol (clove, spicy).

  3. Mace + winetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. Shrimp + winetop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,234 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Egg + shrimptop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,829 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).

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

What each ingredient does

Puff pastry
Forms the flaky, crisp shell that holds the filling.
Egg yolk
Brushed on the edges to promote golden browning in the oven.
Shrimp
Provides the main filling, giving the patties their savory body.
Anchovies
Adds savory depth and salty umami to the shrimp filling.
Dry wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the shrimp filling.

The step that matters

Remove the inner circle and soft parts from the center. Removing the soft center leaves a hollow shell, so the pastry can rise and crisp instead of staying dense and soggy under the filling.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, shrimp, clove, wine):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, shrimp, clove, wine. 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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