Why it works: Veal and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,446 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Vol-au-vent of Croquettes
Ingredients
Directions
Make croquettes the size of a pigeon's egg using equal parts veal, ham, and calves' brains.
Fry the croquettes in oil until they are pale gold in color.
Prepare a rich white sauce and stir in small mushrooms or minced truffles.
Add lemon or lemon-pickle to give the sauce an acidic flavor.
Fill the vol-au-vent with the croquettes and sauce before serving.
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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Veal + mushroomtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,446 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Mushroom + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Ham + mushroomtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,486 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,264 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Veal + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, sauce, mushroom):
- Lemonthe original
- Applefits about as well
- Grapefits less well
- Red currantfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, sauce, mushroom. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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