Name: Vol Au Vent a LA Toulouse
Ingredients: ½ pound Puff Paste; ½ pint Supreme Sauce; ½ cold Chicken, cut in neat pieces; 2 ounces Tongue, cut in pieces; 3 Truffles, sliced; 6 Mushrooms, sliced; 4 Cockscombs; a few Quenelles of Veal or Chicken

Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Vol Au Vent a LA Toulouse

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the cases

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Roll out the puff pastry and cut it into small cases or one ordinary-sized vol-au-vent case.
Bake the cases until golden brown.
Remove the center of the baked case.

Fill and serve

In a stewpan, combine the supreme sauce, chicken pieces, tongue, truffles, mushrooms, cockscombs, and quenelles.
Heat the mixture over low heat until hot, but do not let it boil.
Fill the baked case with the hot mixture and serve.

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.

Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,172 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).
Truffle + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,900 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Truffle + vealtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together815 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Chicken + vealtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,243 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-butanedione (buttery, creamy).
Chicken + truffletop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together756 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Puff paste: Forms the flaky, crisp case that holds the filling.
Supreme sauce: Creamy binding that moistens the filling and holds the pieces together.
Chicken: Provides the main meaty bulk of the filling.
Tongue: Adds rich, savoury meat that adds texture to the filling.
Truffles: Contribute a strong, earthy aroma to the sauce.
Mushrooms: Add earthy flavour and a soft, tender texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Heat the filling without boiling. Boiling a cream-based sauce can cause it to separate and become grainy or thin, and can toughen the chicken and tongue. Gentle heat keeps the sauce smooth and the meats tender.

“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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Vol Au Vent a LA Toulouse