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Cassolettes of Fish, Shrimps, Etc

A pastry case filled with fish, shrimp, and a creamy sauce, served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cassolettes of Fish, Shrimps, Etc

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cases

  1. Divide the potato pastry into 8 portions, shape into balls, and flatten each slightly.

  2. Coat each with egg and breadcrumbs, smooth with a knife, and coat again.

  3. Mark a ring on top of each with a small cutter.

  4. Fry in hot fat until golden, then remove the tops and scoop out some potato.

Make the filling

  1. Melt the butter in a pan, add flour, then gradually stir in milk until boiling.

  2. Add the shrimps, lemon juice, and seasonings; heat through.

Fill and serve

  1. Fill the potato cases with the mixture, replace the tops, and serve hot.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Potato + shrimptop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together520 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Potato pastry
Forms the crisp outer case that holds the filling when fried.
Butter
Enriches the white sauce and carries flavour through the filling.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, thickened with flour to a coating consistency.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother, silkier texture to the filling.
Shrimps
Provide the main seafood flavour and tender texture in the filling.

The step that matters

Frying the cases until golden. Fat must be hot enough to crisp and brown the coated pastry quickly; if it is too cool the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy and pale.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, shrimp, fish, pepper, butter, milk, cream):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, shrimp, fish, pepper, butter, milk, cream. 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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