Name: Vol-au-vent
Ingredients: puff pastry; butter; pulled chicken or turkey; minced veal; stewed oysters; fricassee

Why it works: Butter and oyster are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,184 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Vol-au-vent

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Roll out the puff pastry to about ½ inch thick.
Use a small oval flat dish to cut out two pieces of pastry the same size.
Butter the dish and place one piece of pastry in it.
Brush the edge of the pastry with water.
Place the second piece of pastry on top.
Use a tin cutter or knife to cut the inner part of the pastry nearly through.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until light brown.
Cut out the central part and fill with your choice of filling.
Place the top back on and serve on a napkin.

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.

Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,184 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Chicken + vealtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,243 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-butanedione (buttery, creamy).
Butter + chickentop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,902 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Chicken + oystertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together972 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Veal + oystertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together988 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).