Why it works: Butter and shrimp are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,931 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓
Vol Au Vent
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Pound the anchovies with a small bit of butter.
Rub the mixture through a sieve.
Mix with the shrimps and sauce, then heat it.
Squeeze in some lemon juice.
Fill the puff pastry with the mixture.
Roll out the puff pastry evenly and cut into desired shapes.
Egg wash the top without touching the edges.
Mark the area to cut out for the filling.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until thoroughly done.
If it browns too quickly, cover with paper.
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.
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Butter + shrimptop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,931 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Shrimp + saucetop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,423 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Shrimp + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,923 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter and sauce 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
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, shrimp, sauce):
- Coconutfits better
- Avocadofits better
- Mangofits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, shrimp, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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