Name: Vol-au-Vent
Ingredients: Puff pastry; Yolk of egg; Butter; Fricassee of lobster or sweetbreads; Turbot a la creme or cold roast veal; Good white sauce; Oysters

Why it works: Turbot and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 248 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Vol-au-Vent

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.

Cut the puff pastry to fit the dish or stamp it out with a fluted tin.
Mark the cover about an inch from the edge and ornament it with a knife.
Brush the yolk of egg over the pastry and place it in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C).
Bake for 20 to 30 minutes until browned and baked through.
Carefully detach the cover and scoop out the soft crumb from inside.
Turn the vol-au-vent onto a clean paper to drain excess butter.
Fill with a rich fricassee of lobster, sweetbreads, or other prepared meats and serve immediately.

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.

Turbot + saucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together248 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Lobster + turbottop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together163 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,095 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Turbot + oystertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).
Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,184 recipes

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