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Vol Au Vent a LA Banquiere

Reedbirds stuffed with chicken forcemeat and goose liver, baked and served with thick Madeira sauce and sliced truffles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and truffle are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,209 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Vol Au Vent a LA Banquiere

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Bone the reedbirds and spread them on a table.

  2. Prepare a stuffing with ¾ cup chicken forcemeat and ¼ cup cooked forcemeat; season highly.

  3. Place 1 teaspoon of stuffing and a piece of fat goose liver on each bird, shaping them round.

  4. Lay the birds in a buttered sauté pan, close together to retain shape.

Bake and serve

  1. Fifteen minutes before serving, pour melted butter over the birds and cook in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 15 minutes.

  2. Dress the birds in the vol-au-vent and pour over thick Madeira sauce with sliced truffles.

  3. Serve on a folded napkin.

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. Butter + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Chicken + truffletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together756 recipes

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

  3. Liver + truffletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together395 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  4. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Reedbirds
Provide the main meat, which is wrapped around the stuffing and cooked whole.
Chicken forcemeat
Forms a binding stuffing that holds its shape and gives a smooth, tender texture.
Fat goose liver
Adds richness and moisture, melting into the stuffing as the birds cook.
Melted butter
Carries fat over the birds, promoting even browning and a rich surface.
Thick madeira sauce
Adds a rich, sweet, wine-based flavour and moisture to the finished dish.

The step that matters

Keeping the birds close together in the pan. Packing the birds tightly helps them hold their rolled shape during cooking, so the stuffing stays enclosed instead of spilling out as the fat and juices run.

“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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