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Oyster Rissoles a LA Metropole

Oyster rissoles are oysters wrapped in puff pastry, coated in brown sauce, bacon, and garnished with vermicelli, lobster coral, parsley, and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Oyster Rissoles a LA Metropole

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sauce

  1. Remove gills from the oysters.

  2. Combine thick brown sauce, chopped shallot, cayenne pepper, Chablis or Sauterne, and glaze in a stewpan; reduce by half, skimming well.

  3. Pass the sauce through a sieve.

  4. Mix the sauce with the oysters.

  5. Let the mixture cool.

Assemble the rissoles

  1. Cut cooked bacon into rounds to fit the oysters.

  2. Cover each oyster with brown sauce and place on a bacon round.

  3. Top with another bacon round and press edges together.

  4. Encase the oysters in thin puff pastry.

  5. Seal the pastry edges well.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the pastry-wrapped oysters in boiling butter until pale yellow.

  2. Dust the fried rissoles with fine vermicelli and sprinkle with lobster coral and dried parsley.

  3. Garnish with lemon.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  5. Shallot + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,523 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Large oysters
Form the main filling and provide the rissole's delicate seafood flavour.
Thick brown sauce
Binds the filling and adds moisture and savoury depth around the oysters.
Puff pastry
Encases the filling and bakes or fries into a crisp, flaky shell.
Glaze
Adds concentrated savoury richness and body to the reduced sauce.
Chablis or sauterne
Adds acidity and aroma as it reduces into the sauce.

The step that matters

Fry the pastry-wrapped oysters in boiling butter until pale yellow. Butter that is too hot browns the pastry before the centre heats, while cool butter soaks in grease. Frying until pale yellow sets the pastry crisp without overcooking the oysters.

“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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