Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Vols-au-vent, with Strawberries, Raspberries, or Currants
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrups
Boil 4 ounces of sugar until it reaches a candy stage.
Mash one-fourth of the ripest strawberries and mix with additional sugar.
Boil the strawberry mixture until it thickens, then skim off any foam.
Glaze and fill
Brush the tops of the vols-au-vent with egg white and sprinkle with coarse sugar.
Sprinkle fine pieces of pounded loaf sugar over the glazed tops.
Fill the vols-au-vent with fresh strawberries and pour the cooled syrup over them.
Return to the oven to set the glaze 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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and, when boiled to a candy stage, forms a glaze that sets as it cools.
- Strawberries
- Provide fresh fruit flavour, juice and bulk for the filling.
- Egg white (in the method)
- Brushed on the pastry tops, it helps the coarse sugar adhere and gives a glossy, browned finish.
- Whipped cream
- Adds richness and a light, airy texture to the filling.
The step that matters
Boil the sugar to the candy stage. Sugar boiled too little stays runny, while boiled too far it turns hard or brittle. Reaching the right stage gives a glaze that sets firm and glossy as it cools.
“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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