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Rissoles of Oysters

Fried pastry-wrapped oyster patties coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Oyster and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,545 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Rissoles of Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut each oyster into six pieces and let them cool on a dish.

  2. Roll out the puff pastry very thin.

Shape and coat

  1. Place pieces of oyster on the pastry, fold over, and cut into round shapes.

  2. Brush with egg and coat in bread crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat lard in a stewpan and fry the rissoles until light brown.

  2. Serve on a napkin garnished with fried 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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Oyster + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

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

  5. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Blanched oysters
Provide the savoury filling that is the main flavour of the rissoles.
Puff pastry trimmings
Form the flaky outer casing that wraps around the oyster filling.
Egg
Brushed on the pastry so the bread crumbs adhere and the surface browns.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp coating that browns during frying.
Lard or white dripping
Fries the rissoles, conducting heat to crisp and brown the coating and pastry.

The step that matters

Frying until light brown. Fry in hot fat so the crumb coating and pastry crisp and brown quickly. Fat that is not hot enough lets the coating absorb oil and turn greasy, while the oyster inside needs only enough heat to warm through.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, egg, bread):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, egg, bread. 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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