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Oyster Patties

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 81,283 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Oyster Patties

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Pick over and drain the oysters. Place them in a saucepan and heat until plumped and edges curl.

  2. Drain the liquid, measure it, and add enough milk or cream to make 1 cup.

  3. Melt the butter in a pan without browning. Add sour, salt, pepper, and mace, and blend well.

  4. Stir in the measured liquid and cook until thick and smooth. Add the oysters and heat over hot water for 5 minutes.

  5. For the pattie shells, scald a bowl with boiling water, then fill it with ice water. Add the butter and work it until waxy.

  6. Divide the butter into 4 parts and chill in the ice water.

  7. On a board, place the flour, add salt and egg white, then one piece of butter. Work into a paste with some flour.

  8. Gradually add ice water until a soft dough forms, reserving about 3 tablespoons of flour for dusting.

  9. Knead the dough for 10 minutes, then divide into 2 parts. Roll each out thin.

  10. Place one portion of butter on one piece of dough, dust with flour, cover with the other piece, and roll into a long sheet.

  11. Fold the dough in thirds, turn it, and roll out again. Repeat folding and rolling to create layers.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together4,103 recipes

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

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together78,219 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

Flavor stand-ins for the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, milk, butter, pepper, flour, egg):

  1. Nutmegbetter flavor fit
  2. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  3. Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, milk, butter, pepper, flour, egg. 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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