Why it works: Bread and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Vol-au-vent
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
Roll out the puff pastry to ½ inch thick and cut to fit your dish.
Roll the remaining pastry to just under ½ inch thick and cut two strips 1 inch wide.
Brush the dish with cold water and place one strip around the edge.
Brush the first strip with water and place the second strip on top.
Bake and fill
Fill the pastry with pieces of stale bread.
Roll out a cover and cut it to match the inner rim, then brush with egg white.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 30 minutes, turning if necessary for even baking.
Once baked, remove the cover with a knife, take out the bread, and fill with your desired filling.
Replace the cover and serve.
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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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Bread + almondtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together858 recipes
Shared aroma: acetylpyrazine (roast).
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Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,679 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + almondtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rich puff pastry
- Its layers of butter and dough puff apart in the oven to form the light, flaky walls.
- Stale bread
- Fills the case during baking to hold its shape, then is removed to make room for the filling.
- Egg
- Brushed on the cover, it promotes browning and a glossy golden finish.
The step that matters
Brushing the cover with egg and fitting it to the inner rim. Egg browns and glazes the pastry, while a cover that fits the inner rim seals the case so it rises evenly and stays neat. Pastry layers rise best when the edges are cut cleanly and not pressed together, since pressed edges stop the layers from lifting.
Swap the almond
The recipe marks almond as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, egg, sugar):
- Pecansfits about as well
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Peasfits about as well
- Almondthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, egg, sugar. 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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