Why it works: Mushroom and truffle are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,900 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Vol-au-vent
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the case
Prepare a vol-au-vent case.
Bake the case.
Lift off the cover. Dry the inside.
Make the filling
Fill the case with a ragout made from sweetbread, forcemeat balls, mushrooms, truffles, and cockscombs.
Cover with thick brown sauce. Add sherry or madeira.
Simmer gently until heated through, about 3 minutes.
Garnish and serve
Garnish with crayfish.
Place the cover on top and serve.
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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Mushroom + truffletop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,900 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Mushroom + sherrytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,176 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).
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Sauce + crayfishtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together195 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Truffle + crayfishtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together129 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Mushroom + crayfishtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together165 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sweetbread
- Forms the main meaty body of the ragout filling.
- Mushrooms
- Add moisture and earthy flavour to the filling.
- Thick brown sauce
- Coats the filling and binds it into a rich, glossy sauce.
- Sherry or madeira
- Adds acidity and sweetness that deepen the sauce's flavour.
The step that matters
Simmer gently until heated through. Boiling a sauce with sherry or madeira can make it reduce too far or turn harsh, and rough heat can toughen delicate sweetbreads. Gentle simmering heats the filling evenly while keeping it tender.
“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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