Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Vol-au-vent
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the pastry
Roll out the puff pastry to ¾ inch thick.
Cut with a large oval cutter, 5 inches by 8 inches.
Use a smaller cutter to cut halfway through the center.
Wrap a piece of oiled paper around the edges to keep it in shape.
Bake and hollow
Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 30 to 45 minutes.
Brush the top with beaten egg 15 minutes before it's done.
Once baked, remove the center of the pastry.
Make the fruit filling
Boil 2 tablespoons of sugar and water for 10 minutes.
Add the fruit and boil until tender.
Strain the juice and reduce it to half the quantity.
Place the fruit in the pastry case and pour the juice over it.
Finish and serve
Whip the cream until stiff, then mix in the remaining sugar and vanilla.
Top the fruit with whipped cream and serve.
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 + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,301 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Vanilla + eggtop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together27,347 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
- Puff pastry
- Its laminated layers puff up in the oven to form a light, hollow case.
- Egg
- Brushed on top, it browns the pastry and gives it a glossy finish.
- Fruit
- Provides the main flavor and, cooked with sugar, a tender, juicy filling.
- Thick cream
- Whipped until stiff, it adds richness and a light, airy topping.
- Caster sugar
- Sweetens the syrup for the fruit and the whipped cream.
The step that matters
Bake the pastry fully before hollowing it. Puff pastry rises from steam trapped between its layers. If it is underbaked, the case collapses or stays soggy and will not hold its shape once the center is removed.
“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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