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Vol Au Vents

A dish of quails cooked with bacon, mushrooms, and a sauce of Financiers sauce and reduced quail extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Vol Au Vents

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Braise the quails

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Line a small fricandeau pan with thin layers of fat bacon.

  3. Place a garnished faggot of parsley in the center.

  4. Cover with more layers of fat bacon and moisten with wine mirepoix.

  5. Cover with buttered paper, place the lid on, and braise gently for about 45 minutes.

  6. Once done, drain the quails, let them cool, and trim neatly.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line the inside of the pie with some of the remaining force-meat of fat livers, leaving an inch from the top.

  2. Arrange the quails in circular order with breasts facing up, adding a thin layer of force-meat between each.

  3. Cover with thin layers of fat bacon and place a well-buttered double round of paper on top.

  4. Bake in the oven for about 1 hour.

  5. Remove the bacon and drain off excess grease.

Garnish and sauce

  1. Place a decorated small fillet of fowl between each quail and top each with a large white button mushroom.

  2. Add a border of large white cocks'-combs and a larded heart sweetbread in the center.

  3. Sauce sparingly with a bright Financiers sauce mixed with reduced extract of quails.

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. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Wine + mushroomtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,632 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

  3. Parsley + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Quails
Form the main body of the dish, and their bones supply the reduced extract for the sauce.
Fat bacon
Lines and covers the quails, basting them with fat as they braise and bake.
Force-meat of fat livers
Adds richness and moisture between the quails and lining the pie.
Large white button mushrooms
Add a mild, earthy flavour and tender texture to the finished dish.
Financiers sauce
Provides a rich, glossy sauce that moistens the quails when served.

The step that matters

Drain the quails before assembling. Excess fat and liquid left from braising can make the pie greasy and soggy, so draining and cooling the quails lets them firm up and keeps the assembled dish neatly structured.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (quail, wine, butter, meat, liver, mushroom, sauce):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Garlicfits about as well
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against quail, wine, butter, meat, liver, mushroom, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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