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Vol Au Vent of Sweetbreads and Oysters

A vol-au-vent filled with sweetbreads, oysters, mushrooms, olives, and a creamy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 213 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Vol Au Vent of Sweetbreads and Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sweetbreads

  1. Soak sweetbreads in cold water for at least 30 minutes to cleanse and whiten.

  2. Boil sweetbreads in salted water for 15 to 20 minutes until cooked but not overdone.

  3. Remove sweetbreads, drain, cool, and cut into dice.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, and dredge with flour.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt butter, then add flour and stir well.

  2. Gradually pour in stock until the sauce reaches a creamy consistency.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, cayenne, and nutmeg.

Combine and serve

  1. Add sweetbreads to the sauce, stirring to prevent browning.

  2. Once heated, add oysters, mushrooms, olives, and tarragon vinegar.

  3. Stir and heat again without boiling.

  4. Serve in a warmed vol-au-vent crust.

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. Nutmeg + tarragontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together213 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + tarragontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Mushroom + olivetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,571 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweetbreads
Provide the tender, delicate meat that forms the body of the filling.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and carries flavour, giving it a rich mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the butter into a roux that gives the sauce body and a creamy texture.
Stock
Forms the liquid of the sauce, which thickens as it is added to the roux.
Oysters
Add briny, savoury flavour and a soft texture to the filling.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds a sharp acidity that brightens the rich sauce.

The step that matters

Stir and heat again without boiling. Once oysters are added, boiling can toughen the oysters and cause the cream-style sauce to curdle or separate. Gentle heat keeps the texture smooth and tender.

Swap the tarragon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, mushroom, olive, butter, flour, pepper, nutmeg):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Tarragonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, mushroom, olive, butter, flour, pepper, nutmeg. 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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