Why it works: Ham and chicken are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,497 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
Vol-au-Vent a LA Prince George
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the pastry
Prepare ¾ pound of puff pastry and roll it out to ½ inch thick.
Cut out four pieces using a vol-au-vent cutter dipped in boiling water.
Grease a baking tin with cold water.
Place the pastry pieces on the tin.
Leave two pieces whole and cut out the centers of the other two pieces.
Brush the pastry with the beaten egg.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 15-20 minutes.
Assemble
Stack the two whole pieces and secure the stacked pieces with luting paste.
Place the two center pieces on top and secure the center pieces with paste.
Decorate and dry
Whip the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff.
Pipe the whipped egg whites onto the vol-au-vent.
Decorate with chopped ham or tongue and pistachios.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 15 minutes to dry the egg white.
Fill and serve
Fill the center with ragout.
Place one of the center pieces on top before serving.
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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Ham + chickentop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,497 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Egg + hamtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,526 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Pistachio + chickentop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together94 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Ham + pistachiotop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together47 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Egg + pistachiotop 29% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together822 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Puff pastry
- Rises in the oven into flaky, layered walls that hold the filling.
- Whole egg
- Beaten and brushed on the pastry to give a glossy, browned surface.
- Egg whites
- Whipped until stiff to form a light topping that dries in the oven.
- Ragout filling
- Cooked meat or sweetbread in thick velouté sauce, adding moisture and savoury body.
The step that matters
Drying the whipped egg white topping. Whipped egg whites must be whipped until stiff and then baked gently so the foam sets and dries. Underbaked whites stay soft and weep, while overbaking at high heat can brown or toughen them.
Swap the pistachio
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, ham, chicken):
- Peasfits better
- Beansfits better
- Peanutfits better
- Pistachiothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, ham, chicken. 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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