Why it works: Butter and shrimp are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,931 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓
Vol-au-vent or Bouche a LA Reine
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the dough
Mix flour and a pinch of salt with cold water; let rest for 10 minutes.
Roll out the dough and place the butter in the center.
Fold the dough over the butter and let it rest for another 10 minutes.
Roll the dough lightly, then fold it into thirds lengthwise.
Repeat resting, rolling, and folding this way six times.
Bake and fill
Cut the dough into rounds and place in round tins; bake at 300°F (150°C).
Cut a small lid out of the center of each pastry.
Fill with a mixture similar to timbal, adding shrimps or any white meat.
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.
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Butter + shrimptop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,931 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + shrimptop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,920 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the pastry its structure.
- Butter
- Laminated between layers of dough, it creates flaky separation as it melts and steams during baking.
- Cold water
- Hydrates the flour to form a workable dough while keeping the butter firm.
The step that matters
Repeated resting, rolling, and folding. The butter must stay cold and separate into distinct layers. If it warms and smears into the dough, the pastry loses its flaky rise. Resting keeps the dough firm between folds.
“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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