Why it works: Egg and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Patty Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a good oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the cases
Roll out the puff pastry to ½ inch thick and cut rounds for the bottom of the cases.
Roll out the remaining pastry to ½ inch thick and cut rounds for the lids.
Use a smaller cutter to cut out the centers of the lid rounds.
Cut out small rounds of bread and place them on the bottom rounds to prevent rising.
Brush the outer edge of the bottom round with beaten egg and place one or two lid rings on top, brushing each with egg.
Bake
Place the cases and cutouts on a cold baking tray and bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 20 to 30 minutes.
Once nicely risen and colored, move them to a cooler part of the oven.
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.
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Good puff pastry
- Its layers of fat and dough puff up in the oven to form the light, flaky walls of the cases.
- Beaten egg
- Glazes the pastry, giving it a glossy, browned finish and helping the lid rings stick to the base.
- Slices of bread
- Small bread rounds placed under the cases act as weights that stop the bottoms from rising.
The step that matters
Placing the bread rounds on the bottoms. Puff pastry rises by steam forced up between its layers. Bread rounds placed on the bottoms hold them flat so the base stays level while the walls rise around them.
“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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