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Small Vols-au-vents, or Patty-cases

Small puff pastry cases filled with meat and white sauce, optionally sweetened with whipped cream or custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Small Vols-au-vents, or Patty-cases

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately quick oven

Ingredients

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.

Prepare the pastry

  1. Roll out the puff pastry to ½ inch thickness.

  2. Use a larger round cutter to cut out the patties.

  3. Dip the edge of a smaller cutter in hot water and press it halfway into the center of each patty.

Bake and hollow

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 10 to 12 minutes.

  2. Remove the small rounds of crust from the tops with a sharp knife and scoop out the crumb inside.

Fill and serve

  1. Fill the patties with your choice of filling prepared with white sauce.

  2. For sweet versions, glaze the pastry and fill with whipped cream, preserve, or boiled custard.

  3. If using boiled 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.

  1. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Shrimp + saucetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,423 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Shrimp + creamtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,067 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Light puff pastry
Its layers puff with steam during baking, forming the hollow, flaky case.
White sauce
Binds the savoury filling so it stays moist and holds together inside the case.
Boiled custard
Sets when gently heated, giving the sweet version a smooth, thick filling.

The step that matters

Pressing the inner cutter halfway into the patty. Cutting only partway through the dough keeps the lid attached and lets the case rise high around the centre. Cutting through, or dipping the cutter in water first so it does not stick, keeps the edges clean so the pastry rises evenly.

“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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