Name: Lobster Vol-au-Vent
Ingredients: ½ cup rich lobster sauce; 4 tablespoons cooked sole, finely minced; 2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped; 1 tablespoon chopped button mushrooms, stewed in butter; salt and pepper to taste; puff pastry or plain pastry

Why it works: Lobster and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,095 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Lobster Vol-au-Vent

Ingredients

½ cup rich lobster sauce
4 tablespoons cooked sole, finely minced
2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped button mushrooms, stewed in butter
salt and pepper to taste
puff pastry or plain pastry

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the pastry

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Cut the pastry into ovals and score the tops with a knife.
Bake the pastry until golden brown.

Make the filling and serve

Mix the lobster sauce, minced sole, chopped eggs, and stewed mushrooms in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper.
Fill the baked pastry cases with the mixture and serve.

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.

Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,095 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Sauce and butter 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

Puff pastry: Bakes into a crisp, flaky, golden case that holds the filling.
Rich lobster sauce: Provides moisture and rich flavour that binds the filling together.
Hard-boiled eggs: Add body and a soft, creamy texture to the filling.
Cooked sole: Supplies the fish protein and mild seafood flavour of the filling.

The step that matters

Bake the pastry until golden brown. Pastry must be fully baked so it stays crisp; underbaked pastry turns soft and soggy once the moist filling is added.

“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.

Lobster Sauce174 recipes

Lobster Croquettes99 recipes

Mushroom Soup60 recipes

Lobster Balls7 recipes

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Lobster Vol-au-Vent