Why it works: Meat and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,777 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Small Patties Au Salpicon
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Roll out the puff pastry thinly.
Cut out circles with a biscuit cutter.
Assemble
Wet the edge of one circle with water.
Place a teaspoonful of highly seasoned minced meat on the wet circle.
Cover with another pastry circle and seal the edges.
Repeat until all ingredients are used.
Bake
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.
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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Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,777 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
- Puff pastry
- Forms the flaky, layered shell that puffs and browns in the oven.
- Cooked meat
- Provides the savoury filling that the pastry encloses.
- Seasonings
- Flavour the meat filling so it tastes well inside the pastry.
The step that matters
Sealing the edges. Water on the edge helps the two pastry circles stick together. A poor seal lets filling leak out and can leave the pie open during baking.
“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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