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Another Way to Iviake Vol-au-vent

A creamed oyster filling made with oyster liquor, white stock, butter and flour, served in a vol-au-vent case.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Another Way to Iviake Vol-au-vent

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Open the oysters.

  2. Separate the oysters from the liquor.

  3. Strain the liquor.

  4. Remove the gills from the oysters.

Make the filling

  1. Add the liquor, white stock, butter rolled in flour, mace, lemon peel, white pepper and salt.

  2. Simmer for 15-20 minutes.

  3. Remove the mace and lemon peel.

  4. Add white wine and heavy cream.

  5. Heat until hot.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Mace + white peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. Lemon + white winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Oysters
Provide the main flavor and tender texture of the filling.
Butter rolled in flour
Flour and butter thicken the liquid into a smooth, stable sauce.
Heavy cream
Adds richness and a silky texture to the sauce.
White wine
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce.

The step that matters

Simmer for 15-20 minutes. Simmering must be gentle so the flour fully cooks and thickens without lumps or scorching. Oysters are delicate and toughen with prolonged boiling, so the heat should stay low and steady.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, butter, flour, mace, lemon, white wine, cream):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, butter, flour, mace, lemon, white wine, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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