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Oyster Patties

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,737 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Oyster Patties

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

  1. Make a good puff pastry and roll it out to ½ inch thick.

  2. Cut the pastry with a patty cutter of your desired size.

  3. Mark the middle of each patty with a smaller cutter and brush the edges with egg.

  4. Cut a lid with a larger cutter and brush it with egg as well.

  5. Bake the patties on a baking sheet at 400°F (200°C) until risen.

  6. Remove the center crust from each patty and fill with the oyster mixture.

  7. Scald the oysters with a little mace, remove the gills, and chop them.

  8. Strain the oyster liquor through a fine sieve and mix it with the oysters.

  9. Thicken the mixture with flour and butter, adding shallot and cayenne if desired.

  10. Boil the mixture and then add a little cream.

  11. Fill the patty cases with the mixture and place the lids on top.

  12. Serve on a nicely folded napkin and garnish with parsley.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Flour + shallottop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together5,898 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the shallot

The recipe marks shallot as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, mace, flour, butter, pepper, cream, parsley):

  1. Shallotthe original
  2. Potatoabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, mace, flour, butter, pepper, cream, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

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