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Patties, Tartlets, or Small Vols-a-vents

A puff pastry pastry filled with meat or sweet filling, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,787 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Patties, Tartlets, or Small Vols-a-vents

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the pastry

  1. Roll out the puff pastry to ½ inch thickness.

  2. Use a large round cutter to cut out the patties.

  3. Dip the edge of a smaller cutter in hot water.

  4. Press the dipped edge halfway into the center of each patty.

  5. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 10 to 12 minutes.

  6. Remove the small rounds of crust from the tops with a sharp knife.

  7. Scoop out the insides.

Fill and finish

  1. Fill the patties with prepared meat and white sauce.

  2. For sweet versions, glaze the pastry.

  3. Fill the pastry with whipped cream, preserve, or boiled custard.

  4. If using custard, return to a gentle oven until set.

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. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Oyster + saucetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Oyster + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,886 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Light puff pastry
Its layers puff with steam during baking, forming the light, flaky tartlet shell.
Oysters, lobster, chicken, or other patty meat
Provides the savory filling that the tartlet is built around.
White sauce
Adds moisture and richness so the savory filling stays creamy rather than dry.
Rich whipped cream
Adds a light, creamy texture and richness to the sweet version.

The step that matters

Dipping the cutter and pressing the lid. Dipping the cutter in hot water keeps its edge from sticking to the dough, so the pressed line cuts cleanly without tearing the layers that need to rise. Pressing only halfway leaves a lid that rises as a neat cover.

“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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