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Vol-au-vent Au Saumon Et Aux Crevettes

A pastry shell filled with salmon, shrimp, and a creamy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Vol-au-vent Au Saumon Et Aux Crevettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In an enameled stewpan, melt the butter over low heat.

  2. Add the flour and stir until well mixed, being careful not to brown it.

  3. Gradually pour in the salmon cooking liquid and milk while stirring continuously.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, and mace, then let it simmer gently for 5 minutes.

  5. Add the salmon pieces and simmer gently for 20 minutes if raw, or 10 minutes if cooked.

  6. Remove from heat and let cool completely.

Assemble and bake

  1. Prepare your pie crust and quenelles as instructed previously.

  2. In a pie dish, layer the shrimp, followed by some cooking liquid and butter, then salmon pieces.

  3. Fill the spaces with shrimp and gravy, finish the pie, and bake until the crust is done.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Shrimp + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,931 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Salmon + shrimptop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together819 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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

Salmon
Forms the main body of the filling, providing flesh that holds its shape when gently simmered.
Shrimp
Adds firm, tender pieces to the filling, contrasting with the softer sauce and salmon.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and forms the base of the roux that thickens the sauce.
Refined flour
Thickens the butter and liquids into a smooth sauce when cooked gently without browning.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess, combining with the cooking liquid to form a smooth, mild sauce.

The step that matters

Cooking the flour into the butter without browning. Flour must be stirred into melted butter over low heat so it cooks into a pale roux. Browning changes its flavour and colour and weakens its thickening power, so the sauce turns out darker and less smooth.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, shrimp, butter, flour, milk, pepper):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, shrimp, butter, flour, milk, pepper. 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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