A bit of culinary history: credit where credit is due! As far as we know, no Belgian queen has inspired so many chefs.
Table of contents
Become commonplace
The dish is known by everyone and is also fairly appreciated. It can be found in all cafeterias, snack bars, bistros and roadside restaurants. It has become common fare. But this has certainly not always been the case.
puff pastry
The puff pastry was 'invented', it is said, by Carême, but this is doubtful. Dishes do not just come into being, there is always a lead-in and that was already in the Middle Ages. A hollowed-out loaf was used to serve meat in a thick sauce.
At some point, it must have been discovered that if layers of butter are placed between the dough or if oil is spread on it, the dough puffs up. In the Arab world, they already knew such 'puff pastry'.
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Marie-Antoine Careme
Marie-Antoine Carême (1784 – 1833), a French chef and pastry chef, may have perfected the dough. In any case, he was very proud that his dough was so light that it could “fly in the wind”.
The “vol au vent”, as the first pastries were called, which were filled with all kinds of ragouts, made from poultry, fish, game or offal.
Queen Margot
The most popular is the “Vol au vent à la Reine”, which is filled with chicken ragout. This “Reine” or queen was Marguerite de Valois. She has recorded her name here forever. Marguerite de Valois was the wife of Henri IV.
This queen is also known as la Reine Margot or simply, la Reine. All dishes “à la Reine” are dedicated to her.
The first vol au vent was the size of a loaf of bread and was served on a platter from which everyone scooped and ate the puff pastry at the end.
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Bouchee to the Queen
However, the “Bouchée à la Reine” was introduced by Maria Leszczynska, wife of Louis XV.
Together with the pastry chefs of the court of Versailles, the French queen Marie Leszczynska (1703-1768), daughter of Stanislas Leszczynski, King of Poland, is said to be at the historical origin of this traditional recipe of French gastronomy.
Inspired by pastries made from sweet puff pastry such as the well of love created by Vincent La Chapelle made for her rival Madame de Pompadour, she is said to have gone in search of aphrodisiac dishes and asked her pastry chef Nicolas stohrer to make a savory version to curry favor with her husband.
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Variations
In 1902, in his culinary guide, among his 16 recipes with different names, shapes and toppings, Auguste Escoffier ranked the bouchée among the appetizersHe presented those 'queen's snacks' in a round and ribbed shape.
He also indicated that this puff pastry snack was originally garnished with a creamed poultry puree, and at the end of the 19th century with a salpicon of chicken fillet, mushrooms and truffles.
In the different recipes of Auguste Escoffier the toppings are very varied and can be based on, for example, the main ingredients:
- brunoise of vegetables (Bouchée Bouquetière)
- wild (Bouchée Diane)
- asparagus tips and truffle (Bouchée Grand-Duc)
- foie gras and mushrooms (Bouchée Montglas)
- crayfish tails with Nantua sauce (Bouchée Nantua)
- lobster with lobster sauce (Bouchée Victoria)
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Contemporary recipes
Nowadays, the name difference between the various garnishes that fill the queen's snacks has practically disappeared.
“Bouchée à la Reine” has become a collective name for preparations in the shape of a well in puff pastry with a diameter and height of eight to ten centimetres, with ribbed edges and covered with a cap of the same dough.
But now we also see them in all shapes: square, rectangle, star, fish,…
My experience
The most delicious bouchée or queen's snack I - Yasmine - ever ate, was in Reims. According to insiders, it was the classic preparation: farm chicken, veal meatballs, sweetbreads, mushrooms de paris in a delicious velouté sauce (with champagne) and finished with a topping of a Dutch sauce. Of course served with champagne. And although it was already more than 20 years ago, I can still remember it very easily.
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