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Vol-au-Vent of Veal

A puff pastry shell filled with seasoned veal in white sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Vol-au-Vent of Veal

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Season the minced veal with lemon peel, parsley, salt, and pepper.

  2. Heat the veal in a stewpan with white sauce until hot.

Shape the pastry

  1. Roll out the puff pastry to ½ inch thick.

  2. Cut the pastry into a large round shape.

  3. Use a smaller cutter to cut a circle halfway through the pastry.

  4. Brush the edge with beaten egg.

  5. Scoop out some soft pastry to create a hollow for the minced veal.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until risen and browned.

  2. Fill the vol-au-vent with the minced veal.

  3. Serve on a hot dish.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Veal + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Veal + parsleytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,766 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold veal
Forms the savoury meat filling that gives the vol-au-vent its main body.
Puff pastry
Its layers puff and separate in the oven to form a light, crisp case.
White sauce
Adds moisture and creaminess so the minced veal stays soft and saucy.
Beaten egg
Coats the pastry edge so it browns to a glossy, golden finish.

The step that matters

Cutting the pastry halfway through. Cutting too deep cuts through the layers and stops the pastry rising evenly, while cutting too shallow stops the lid lifting cleanly. A clean cut halfway lets the case puff high and hold the filling.

“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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