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Patties Vol-au-vent

A puff pastry case filled with seasoned beef, veal, or turkey, served as a vol-au-vent.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Patties Vol-au-vent

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

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 cases

  1. Roll out puff pastry to ½ inch thick and cut out circles with a 2-inch round cutter.

  2. Dip a 1-inch cutter in hot water and press it into the center of each pastry circle, about halfway through.

  3. Brush the pastry circles with egg yolk and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden.

  4. Remove the inner circle from each pastry and discard the soft parts.

Make the fillings

  1. Fill the pastry cases with a mixture of shredded beef, seasoned with pepper, salt, shallot, gravy, Madeira, and breadcrumbs.

  2. For veal patties, mix minced veal with parsley, lemon peel, nutmeg, salt, cream, and gravy, then fill the cases without warming the mixture.

  3. For turkey patties, mince the white meat and mix with grated lemon, nutmeg, salt, and white pepper.

Garnish and serve

  1. Garnish the patties with fried parsley before serving.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 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

Puff pastry
Its layers puff and crisp in the oven to form the hollow case.
Egg yolk
Brushed on before baking, it promotes browning for a golden surface.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savoury depth to the beef and veal fillings.
Madeira
Adds sweetness and aroma to the beef filling.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the veal filling soft and tender.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb liquid and help bind the beef filling.

The step that matters

Fill the veal without warming the mixture. Warm meat fat and cream can soften and separate, and a warm filling over raw pastry can make the case soggy. Keeping the mixture cold helps the fillings stay firm and the pastry crisp.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, beef, pepper, veal, parsley, lemon, nutmeg):

  1. Carrotfits about as well
  2. Shallotthe original
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, beef, pepper, veal, parsley, lemon, 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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