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Lobster, Vols-Au-Vent of, Small
Vols-au-vent are baked without moulds. They are rather difficult to make, and require great care. They should be made of the richest puff paste, rolled out seven times. Leave the paste about an inch in thickness, and stamp it in rounds with a plain or fluted cutter, about two inches in diameter. Dip a smaller cutter, about an inch and a quarter in diameter, into hot water, and press it partly through the paste, leaving a border all round. Bake in a brisk oven; the vols-au-vent ought to rise considerably, and be lightly browned. When they are baked, scoop out the inside of the piece marked out, being careful to preserve the top for a cover, and turn them on a piece of clean writing-paper to drain and dry. When ready, fill them with a little minced lobster, prepared as for lobster patties, and serve neatly arranged on a napkin. If, after baking, the crust seems too light to hold the mixture, the inside may be strengthened by being brushed over with beaten egg. Time, about twenty minutes to bake the vols-au-vent. Probable cost, 3d. each.
A Victorian canapé course: individual puff pastry cases, baked free-standing without a mould, then filled with dressed lobster. The pastry is the whole difficulty, and it hinges on cold paste and a clean cut.
- The cut is everythingChill the rolled paste until firm, use a sharp cutter, and press straight down without twisting — a twisted edge seals the layers and the case will not rise. The smaller inner cutter, dipped in hot water, should go only partly through the paste, as the recipe says, never all the way.
- "Rolled out seven times"This most likely means seven turns of the classic folded puff paste rather than seven passes with the pin. Good all-butter shop-bought puff pastry, given one or two extra turns of its own, behaves much the same.
- An inch of pasteThat thickness is not a misprint: a 2-inch round of paste an inch deep is what produces a case tall enough to hold filling. The recipe says only that they "ought to rise considerably".
- "A brisk oven"Usually reckoned at about 400-425F. Puff pastry needs the high initial heat to convert its butter layers to steam; a moderate oven melts the butter out and yields flat, greasy cases. Twenty minutes is about right for this size.
- Clean writing-paperThe paper was there to blot butter and let the cases drain and dry. A wire rack over a paper towel does the same job, and the cases must dry out fully or the filling will soften them.
- The filling is elsewhere"Prepared as for lobster patties" points to cooked lobster meat minced and bound in a thick white sauce, typically seasoned with cayenne and lemon. As a rough guide, something like 8 oz of picked meat with a scant cup of sauce would fill eight to a dozen small cases.
- Fill at the last minuteWarm cases, hot filling, straight to the table. Filled in advance, the interior goes to paste. Note that the recipe's own egg-wash is offered for a different reason: to strengthen a crust that "seems too light to hold the mixture".
- Yield and costNo yield is given; a 1 lb block of paste rolled an inch thick gives only about eight or nine 2-inch rounds before the trimmings are re-rolled, two or three per person as a first course. "3d. each" places these as a genteel rather than everyday dish.
Vol-au-vent translates as "flight in the wind", a name traditionally explained by the near-weightlessness of the risen case, and generally traced to the early nineteenth-century French kitchen and the circle of Antonin Carême, who codified the large single-crust version. Cassell's includes a small, individual form because late-Victorian dinners had a place for hot savoury pastries served on a folded napkin — between the fish and the entrées, or as a supper dish. Lobster was the natural filling: British and North American fisheries were landing enormous quantities in this period, canned lobster was cheap and widely sold, and its firm meat and pink colour held up in a rich white sauce better than most fish. That a book aimed at ordinary households opens by admitting the dish is "rather difficult to make" is itself telling — puff paste made by hand, seven turns, was a benchmark of a trained cook rather than a routine weekday skill.