Why it works: Egg and chicken are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,991 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓
Vol Au Vent
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the pastry
Roll out a piece of tart paste to 2 inches thick.
Stamp a piece the size of the bottom of the dish.
Stamp another piece of puff paste the same size and thickness.
Wash the first piece with egg and place the second piece on top.
Mark the center with a cutter two sizes smaller and egg the top with yolks.
Bake and fill
Bake until golden brown.
Remove the center part to the mark and fill with fricassee.
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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Egg + chickentop 30% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,991 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Tart paste
- Forms the sturdy base that holds the shape of the vol-au-vent while baking.
- Puff paste
- Rises in the oven and separates into flaky layers for a light, crisp top case.
- Egg
- Glazes the pastry so it browns and helps the two layers stick together.
The step that matters
Marking the center before baking. The cutter mark defines the inner well that will be lifted out later, so it must be placed carefully. Egg wash on the first layer helps the two pastry pieces bond so the top does not separate as it rises.
“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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