No. 151

Small Puff Patties

Petits Pates Feuilletes

Make a puff paste the same as for puff paste (No. 146), giving it six turns, roll out the paste to three-sixteenths of an inch in thickness, let it rest awhile, then from it cut about fifteen round pieces, using a smooth pastry cutter one and three-quarters to two inches in diameter; collect the parings together at once, roll them out with the rolling pin to one-eighth of an inch thick, and cut the same quantity of round pieces with the same cutter, turn them over on to a wet baking sheet in straight rows, a small distance apart, and lay on each one, a one to one and a quarter inch ball of veal Godiveau forcemeat, or one of fish, chicken, game, with or without chives. Moisten the paste around the garnishing, cover each one with the pieces that were cut first, pressing them down to make the two layers of paste adhere together all around the garnishing; flatten the paste with the back of a small one and a half inch pastry cutter, egg the tops using a soft brash, and cook these small patties in a well heated oven.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A straightforward two-disc puff pastry turnover, but the success of the whole thing rests on temperature and on the seal. Ranhofer assumes you have already made the puff paste at No. 146 and that you know what godiveau is.

The hinge: keep everything coldPuff paste rolled to three-sixteenths of an inch warms fast under the hands, and warm butter layers leak instead of lifting. Ranhofer says only to "let it rest awhile"; in a modern kitchen that is best taken as chilling the sheet before cutting, and chilling the assembled patties again before they go in the oven.
"A well heated oven"Ranhofer gives no temperature. For puff paste this means a hot oven, around 425F in modern terms, hot enough to flash the water in the butter layers into steam before the fat can melt out. Bake until deep gold and the sides are set firm.
Godiveau forcemeatA classic veal forcemeat of lean veal, beef suet and egg, pounded to a paste, sometimes lightened with iced water or cream. Ranhofer gives it its own number elsewhere. A modern equivalent is a fine mousseline of veal, chicken or white fish blitzed with egg white and cream, seasoned assertively since it is going inside bland pastry.
The two thicknesses are deliberateThe bottoms are cut from the second rolling of the parings, which have lost some lift, so they are rolled thinner. The tops come from the first, better-laminated sheet. Do not swap them.
Turn them over on the baking sheetThe usual explanation for inverting cut discs is that the cutter drags the top edge downward, which can seal the layers and stunt the rise; Ranhofer gives no reason. Cut straight down with a sharp cutter and do not twist it.
The wet baking sheetDamp metal was a common practice, generally explained as adding a little steam early in the bake and helping the bases stay put. Parchment on a heavy sheet works as well; if you use the water trick, flick it on, do not puddle it.
"Egg the tops using a soft brash"A printer's error for brush. Egg wash the tops only, and keep it off the cut edges, where it glues the laminations shut and kills the rise.
Yield and servingFifteen patties of roughly two inches, meant as a hot hors d'oeuvre or a garnish around a larger roast. Serve within minutes of baking; reheated puff paste with a moist forcemeat inside goes soft quickly.

A Little History

Petits pâtés feuilletés belong to the long French tradition of the small enclosed pie, and by the time Charles Ranhofer set them down in The Epicurean (1894) they were standard fare in the hors d'oeuvre service of a grand restaurant. Ranhofer ran the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York for over thirty years, and his book is less a domestic cookbook than a working record of that operation: entries are numbered, cross-referenced, and assume the reader can turn back to No. 146 for the paste and forward for the forcemeat, the way a cook in a brigade would already know them. That structure is why this page reads as terse as it does. The economy of the method is worth noting too — the parings from the first cut are immediately re-rolled to make the bases, so nothing of an expensive butter paste is wasted, and the slightly weaker second rolling is put where lift matters least.