Vol-au-Vent Financière.—Prepare the pastry case
as described above, then have ready a ragout of tiny
quenelles made of any raw white meat, any remains
of cooked brains or sweetbread, cut up small, little
fillets of cooked chicken, small strips of cooked
tongue, and, if at hand, a bottle of financière garnish
well drained, and heat all this in a rich velouté or
béchamel, to which you add at the last the yolk of
one or more eggs, beaten up with a spoonful or two
of cream; then pour this all into the vol-au-vent,
and serve at once. As a fact, anything can be used
for a vol-au-vent, and it is a plat very dear to the
thrifty French housewife in consequence, as it enables
her to use up her scraps of all sorts in a dainty
manner. The above is the regular vol-au-vent, to
which oysters, prawns, truffles, mushrooms, foie
gras, etc., may be added ad lib., but the culinary
purist would call this, from its white sauce, a vol-au-
vent Toulouse, a financière ragout being strictly,
served in a light brown sauce. Needless to say,
small patties and cases may be filled in exactly the
same way, and take their name from their filling; as
for example, petits vol-au-vent aux huitres, when the
cases are filled up with a rich and rather thick
oyster sauce; aux crevettes, and de homara à la
crème, when creamy shrimp or lobster sauce is used;
or p. v. à la Montglas (minced chicken, tongue,
truffle, etc., tossed in white or brown sauce); à la
Milanaise (the filling consisting of shredded ham,
chicken, truffles, macaroni, etc., tossed in white sauce
strongly flavoured with grated Parmesan cheese);
p. v. à la royale (filled with minced foie gras, chicken,
sweetbreads, mushrooms, etc., tossed in creamy
béchamel sauce coloured with lobster butter); p. v. à
la Valenciennes (filled with minced chicken, lobster,
mushrooms, artichoke bottoms, and rice, all tossed
in velouté rather strongly flavoured with curry
butter); p. v. à la Barras (the filling consisting of
turned olives cooked and heated in a bigarade sauce,
with tiny fillets of cooked wild duck, or, indeed,
duck of any kind); p. v. à la Lucullus (for this have
some tiny quenelles poached in the usual way, and
made from the crème mixture given in the chapter
on soufflés, etc., some cubes of foie gras, and three
or four raw truffles cooked either in champagne or