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Oyster Patties

A pastry shell filled with a creamy oyster sauce and oyster halves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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.

Prepare the cases

  1. Roll out the puff pastry to about 1 inch thick and cut out 8 or 9 rounds using a 2-inch cutter.

  2. Brush the rounds with beaten egg and create an inner ring with a 1-inch cutter dipped in hot water.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 20 to 25 minutes, then scoop out the soft inside and keep the patties warm.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, boil the oysters with their liquor, drain, remove the beards, and cut each oyster in half.

  2. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour, and cook for 3 to 4 minutes.

  3. Stir in the oyster liquor and enough milk to make ½ pint, and cook until the sauce boils.

  4. Simmer for 10 minutes, then add the cream, egg yolks, lemon juice, and seasoning; simmer gently until thickened.

  5. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve, reheat, add the oysters, and fill the puff pastry cases.

Serve

  1. Cover with the tops, garnish with parsley, 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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,047 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Oyster + fishtop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together496 recipes

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

  4. Butter + fishtop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together4,488 recipes

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Puff pastry
Bakes into flaky, crisp layers that hold the filling.
Oysters
Provide the main flavour and tender texture of the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and, with flour, forms the base of the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the butter and liquid into a smooth sauce.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the sauce as it gently heats.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety body to the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmer the sauce gently after adding the egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat; if the sauce boils after they go in, they can scramble and turn grainy, so it should simmer only until thickened.

“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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