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Vol-au-Vent Patties
Roll out a piece of puff paste to about one-fourth inch in thickness, cut out some rounds with a tin cutter about two and one-half inches in diameter, then take a smaller cutter, about one and one-half inches in diameter, and cut nearly, but not quite through, in the center of each one; put them on a baking-dish and bake in a quick oven. The paste rises, and the inside becomes a lid that may be lifted out with the point of knife. Trim off the surplus paste from the inside, fill them with whatever has been prepared for them, put the lids on and decorate with a sprig of parsley.
A method rather than a dish: these are the shells, and the filling is left entirely to the cook. A few points make the difference between a shell that rises straight and one that topples.
- "Quick oven"425-450F. Puff paste needs the initial blast to turn its water to steam and force the layers apart; a moderate oven melts the butter out before the lift happens and you get a greasy biscuit.
- Chill before bakingThe original says nothing about it, but cut rounds should go into the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes before they see the oven. Warm, slack paste spreads sideways instead of upward.
- Cutting the lidAs the original says, press the smaller cutter nearly but not quite through. Dip both cutters in flour and press straight down without twisting -- a twist seals the cut edges together and the shell rises lopsided or not at all.
- Puff pasteThe book assumes house-made puff paste. All-butter frozen puff pastry, thawed in the refrigerator and rolled to a scant quarter inch, behaves the same way; the shortening-based sheets do not taste as good and rise less cleanly.
- "Baking-dish"Here most likely a flat baking sheet or shallow tin. Line it with parchment and do not grease it, and leave an inch between rounds so the steam escapes.
- TimingNot given in the original. Expect 18-25 minutes at that heat for a shell this size, until deep golden and dry-sounding at the sides. Underbaked puff collapses as it cools.
- FillingFill hot with a hot mixture, or the shells go soft. Creamed sweetbreads, chicken, oysters or mushrooms in a thick veloute are the period fillings; a thin sauce will soak the base within minutes.
- YieldA pound of puff paste rolled to this thickness gives roughly 12-16 two-and-a-half-inch rounds, allowing for re-rolled scraps. Re-rolled trimmings rise less evenly -- stack them rather than balling them up.
Vol-au-vent means "flight in the wind," a name generally credited in French culinary tradition to the pastry's near-weightlessness once baked; it is usually traced to the early nineteenth-century Paris kitchens associated with Careme, though the attribution is traditional rather than documented. The large vol-au-vent was a centerpiece, a single deep case brought whole to the table; the small patty version described here is the service-friendly descendant, one to a plate, and it was a common sight on American hotel and banquet menus of the 1890s as a first course or a luncheon entree. That this entry teaches only the shell is telling: the cases are treated as a component to be filled with whatever has already been prepared, and finished with the sprig of parsley the recipe specifies.