Vol-au-Vent
INGREDIENTS.- to 1 lb. of puff-paste, fricasseed chickens, rabbits, ragoûts, or the remains of cold fish, flaked and warmed in thick white sauce.
AVERAGE COST, exclusive of the ragoût or fricassee, 1s. 3d.
Make from to 1 lb. of puff-paste, taking care that it is very evenly rolled out each time, to ensure its rising properly; and if the paste is not extremely light, and put into a good hot oven, this cannot be accomplished, and the vol-au-vent will look very VOL-AU-VENT. badly.
Roll out the paste to the thickness of about 1½ inch, and, with a fluted cutter, stamp it out to the desired shape, either round or oval, and, with the point of a small knife, make a slight incision in the paste all round the top, about an inch from the edge, which, when baked, forms the lid. Put the vol-au-vent into a good brisk oven, and keep the door shut for a few minutes after it is put in. Particular attention should be paid to the heating of the oven, for the paste cannot rise without a tolerable degree of heat. When of a nice colour, without being scorched, withdraw it from the oven, instantly remove SMALL VOL-AU-VENTS. the cover where it was marked, and detach all the soft crumb from the centre; in doing this, be careful not to break the edges of the vol-au-vent; but should they look thin in places, stop them with small flakes of the inside paste, stuck on with the white of an egg. This precaution is necessary to prevent the fricassee or ragoût from bursting the case, and so spoiling the appearance of the dish. Fill the vol-au-vent with a rich mince, or fricassee, or ragout, VOL-AU-VENT, SWEET. or the remains of cold fish, flaked and warmed in a good white sauce, and do not make them very liquid, for fear of the gravy bursting the crust; replace the lid, and serve. To improve the appearance of appearance the crust, brush it over with the yolk of an egg after it has risen properly.
TIME.- hour to bake the vol-au-vent.
SEASONABLE at any time.
Note. Small vol-au-vents may be made like those shown in the engraving, and filled with minced veal, chicken, &c. They should be made of the same paste as the larger ones, and stamped out with a small fluted custer.
Vol-au-Vent of Fresh Strawberries, with Whipped Cream.-INGREDIENTS for dish for 6 persons. lb. of puffpaste, 1 pint of freshly-gathered strawberries, sugar to taste, a plateful of whipped cream.
Make a vol-au-vent case, only not quite so large nor so high as for a savoury one.
When nearly done, brush the paste over with the white of an egg, then sprinkle on it some pounded sugar, and put it back in the oven to set the glaze. Remove the interior, or soft crumb, and, at the moment of serving, fill it with the strawberries, which should be picked, and broken up with sufficient sugar to sweeten them nicely. Place a few spoonfuls of whipped cream on the top, and serve.
TIME.- hour to 40 minutes to bake the vol-au-vent.
SEASONABLE in June and July.
Vol-au-Vent, Sweet, of Plums,
A vol-au-vent is a tall puff-pastry case baked hollow, then filled at the last moment. Everything depends on the pastry rising straight, so oven heat and even rolling matter more than the filling.
- The hinge: a hot oven, undisturbedThe recipe calls for "a good brisk oven" and stresses that "the paste cannot rise without a tolerable degree of heat"; in modern terms this is usually read as a hot oven, roughly 425-450F. Puff pastry rises on steam, so the case must go into full heat, and the recipe directs that the door be kept shut for a few minutes after it goes in; opening it early collapses the lift.
- Pastry quantityThe ingredient line has lost its lower figure. For a case serving six, work with about 1 lb of puff pastry — roughly one standard 500 g block of all-butter puff, or two sheets.
- How thick to rollThe stated thickness is unusually generous. Around 3/4 to 1 inch gives a case with walls strong enough to hold a sauced filling; roll each turn evenly, since uneven thickness makes the case lean as it rises.
- Baking timeThe time has dropped its fraction. A large case takes roughly 25-35 minutes in a hot oven; the sweet case with a sugar glaze is given as up to 40 minutes. Judge by deep colour and a hollow, dry-sounding shell.
- Cutting the lidThe recipe asks only for a slight incision an inch in from the edge, not a cut through the paste. After baking, lift the lid off while the case is hot and scoop out the soft interior at once -- it firms as it cools and tears the walls if left.
- Patching the shellEgg white used as glue for flakes of inner paste is sound practice, but it is raw and only briefly warmed. If that concerns you, return the patched case to the oven for five minutes to set it.
- Filling consistencyThe warning about liquid fillings is the practical one: a ragout or fricassee should be thick enough to mound on a spoon. Fill immediately before serving or the base goes soggy.
- The strawberry versionA pint of strawberries is about 12 oz. Both the fruit and the cream go in at the table — assembled even twenty minutes ahead, the juice will soften the pastry.
- Leftover fishCold cooked fish flaked into white sauce should be brought back to a proper simmer before it goes into the case, not merely "warmed".
Vol-au-vent — literally "flight in the wind", a name pointing at the lightness of the risen case — belongs to the French pastry repertoire that English cookery books absorbed wholesale in the nineteenth century, and its invention is traditionally credited to Antonin Carême's kitchen in the early 1800s. Its appeal to a Victorian household was practical as much as showy: the case is the dish, so a small quantity of minced veal, a fricassee of rabbit, or the remains of yesterday's cold fish could be sent to table looking like a set piece. Beeton's book habitually pairs an ambitious form with thrifty contents, and the note that the same case, made smaller and glazed with sugar, will hold strawberries and whipped cream shows the economy of a cook who learned one technique and made it serve both courses.