Why it works: Bread and chicken are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,258 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity. The science ↓
A Vol-au-vent
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the case
Prepare the brioche paste.
Shape the paste around a piece of bread or a mold to maintain its form.
Make the filling
Stew the boned chicken, sweetbreads, and cocks' combs in a rich white sauce.
Make small balls or bean-shaped pieces from the remaining paste.
Boil the paste pieces in the gravy.
Arrange the boiled pieces on top of the vol-au-vent.
Decorate with leaves and flowers from the baked crust.
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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Bread + chickentop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,258 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).
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Brioche + breadtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together33 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Bread + saucetop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,934 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Chicken + saucetop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,513 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Brioche + chickentop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together28 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Brioche paste
- Forms the buttery, tender pastry case that holds the filling.
- Boned chicken
- Provides the main cooked meat in the creamy filling.
- Sweetbreads
- Adds a soft, rich texture to the filling.
- Rich white sauce
- Binds the stewed meats together and keeps the filling moist.
- Gravy
- Moistens and flavors the paste pieces that are boiled in it.
The step that matters
Shape the paste around a piece of bread or a mold to maintain its form.. Rich brioche dough is soft and spreads when baked, so it needs a firm support to keep its shape and rise upward rather than collapse.
“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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