Skip to main content
Main

Small Vols-au-vents, or Patty-cases

Small puff pastry cases filled with meat and white sauce, optionally topped with fried crumbs or sweet custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Sauce and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,787 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Small Vols-au-vents, or Patty-cases

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the pastry

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

  2. Use a larger round cutter to cut out the patties.

  3. Dip the edge of a smaller cutter in hot water and press it halfway into the center of each patty.

Bake and hollow

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 to 12 minutes.

  2. Remove the small rounds of crust from the tops with a sharp knife and scoop out the crumb inside.

Fill and finish

  1. Fill the patties with your choice of filling prepared with white sauce.

  2. Optionally, top with fried crumbs or replace the tops.

  3. For sweet versions, glaze the pastry and fill with whipped cream, preserve, or boiled custard.

  4. If using custard, return to a gentle oven until set.

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. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Shrimp + saucetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,423 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Shrimp + creamtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Light puff pastry
Rises in the oven into flaky, hollow cases that hold the filling.
White sauce
Binds the filling together and keeps it moist inside the pastry case.
Whipped cream, preserve, or boiled custard
Provides sweetness and a soft, creamy filling for the sweet version.

The step that matters

Pressing the smaller cutter halfway into the patties. Cutting only partway through keeps the rim and base attached so the pastry rises into a tall case. Cutting all the way through lets the lid sink and the case stay flat.

“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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes