Name: A Vol Au Vent
Ingredients: Brioche paste; Boned chicken, chopped; Sweetbreads, cut into pieces; Cock's combs, chopped; Thick white sauce; Gravy

Why it works: Chicken and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,513 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

A Vol Au Vent

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare brioche paste and shape it in a mold or with a piece of bread to maintain the shape.
In a saucepan, combine chopped chicken, sweetbreads, and cock's combs with thick white sauce and cook until tender.
Form small balls or bean-shaped pieces from the remaining brioche paste.
Boil the paste pieces in the gravy until cooked through.
Arrange the cooked mixture in the brioche shell and top with the boiled paste pieces and baked leaves and flowers from the crust.

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.

Chicken + saucetop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,513 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Brioche + chickentop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together28 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).
Brioche + saucetop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together49 recipes