Name: Patties, Tartlets, or Small Vols-au-vents
Ingredients: light puff pastry; water; filling of choice (shrimps, oysters, lobster, chicken, pheasant, or other meat); white sauce; fried crumbs (optional); whipped cream (for sweet version); preserve (for sweet version); boiled custard (for sweet version)

Why it works: Sauce and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,787 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Patties, Tartlets, or Small Vols-au-vents

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately quick oven

Ingredients

light puff pastry
water
filling of choice (shrimps, oysters, lobster, chicken, pheasant, or other meat)
white sauce
fried crumbs (optional)
whipped cream (for sweet version)
preserve (for sweet version)
boiled custard (for sweet version)

Directions

The book says “a moderately quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Roll out the puff pastry to ½ inch thickness.
Use two round cutters to cut out the patties: one larger and one smaller.
Dip the edge of the smaller cutter in hot water and press it halfway into the larger cutouts.
Bake the patties for 10 to 12 minutes until golden.
Remove the small rounds from the tops and scoop out the insides.
Fill the patties with your choice of filling mixed with white sauce.
For sweet versions, glaze the pastry and fill with whipped cream, preserve, or boiled custard.
If using custard, return to a gentle oven until set.

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.

Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,787 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Shrimp + saucetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,423 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Shrimp + creamtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,067 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).