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Vol-au-Vent a LA Prince George

A puff pastry vol-au-vent filled with ham or tongue, pistachios, and whipped egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,526 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Vol-au-Vent a LA Prince George

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the pastry

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Roll out the puff pastry to ½ inch thick and cut out four pieces with a vol-au-vent cutter dipped in boiling water.

  3. Wet a baking tin with cold water and place the whole pieces of pastry on it.

  4. Remove the centers from the other two pieces and place those center pieces on the baking tin as well.

  5. Brush the pastry with the beaten egg and bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

Assemble and decorate

  1. Stack the two whole pieces and secure them with luting paste.

  2. Place the two center pieces on top and fasten them with paste.

  3. Whip the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff, then pipe it onto the vol-au-vent in decorative lines.

  4. Garnish with alternating bunches of chopped ham or tongue and pistachios.

  5. Return the vol-au-vent to the oven for about 15 minutes to dry the egg white.

Serve

  1. Serve hot or cold, filling the center with ragout and topping with one of the center pieces.

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. Egg + hamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

  2. Ham + pistachiotop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together47 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Egg + pistachiotop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together822 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Puff pastry
Puffs up in the oven into flaky, hollow layers that form the vol-au-vent case.
Whole egg, beaten
Brushed on the pastry to give it a glossy, golden browned surface.
Egg whites
Whipped until stiff and piped on, then dried in the oven to set into a white decorative coating.
Chopped cooked ham or tongue
Adds savoury meaty flavour and colour as a garnish on the pastry.
Blanched and chopped pistachios
Adds nutty aroma, crunch and green colour to the garnish.

The step that matters

Returning the vol-au-vent to the oven to dry the egg white. Whipped egg white is wet and soft when piped. Gentle heat dries and sets it so the decorative lines hold their shape instead of running or weeping onto the pastry.

Swap the pistachio

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

  1. Peasfits better
  2. Lima beansfits about as well
  3. Walnutfits about as well
  4. Pistachiothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, ham. 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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