Name: Vol-au-vent a LA Normande
Ingredients: puff pastry for vol-au-vent; slices of beef fillet; sole fish; oysters; mussels; mushrooms; fish velouté sauce; egg

Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Vol-au-vent a LA Normande

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the puff pastry for the vol-au-vent, reserving the lid.
Make a Norman-style stew with beef fillet, sole, oysters, mussels, and mushrooms.
Sauce with reduced fish velouté and thicken with egg.
Strain the sauce and mix it with the stew.
Fill the vol-au-vent with the mixture, place the lid on top, and serve.

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.

Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,232 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Fish + oystertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together496 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Fish + mushroomtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together444 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,103 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Beef + fishtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together226 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).