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Vol-au-Vents a LA Normande

Seafood vol-au-vents filled with a ragout of sole, oysters, mussels, mushrooms, and sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,632 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol, which smells allspice, anise. The science ↓

Vol-au-Vents a LA Normande

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Make small pastry cases using puff pastry.

  2. Prepare a ragout with sole, oysters, mussels, mushrooms, and sauce.

Assemble and serve

  1. Fill the pastry cases with the ragout.

  2. Heat the filled cases separately until hot before serving.

  3. Serve on a hot dish, garnished with fried parsley.

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. Mushroom + winetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,632 recipes

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

  2. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Oyster + saucetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Oyster + mushroomtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,299 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Mushroom + saucetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,480 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Puff pastry
Bakes into light, flaky layers that hold the filling in a crisp shell.
Sole
Forms the delicate fish base of the ragout, becoming tender and flaky when cooked.
Oysters
Add a briny, savoury seafood flavour to the ragout.
Mussels
Contribute a rich, briny seafood flavour to the ragout.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and moisture to the ragout.

The step that matters

Heating the filled cases separately until hot. Pastry soaks up moisture from a wet filling and turns soggy over time. Heating the cases and filling separately, and only until hot, keeps the shells crisp and the seafood from overcooking.

“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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