Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A light pastry shell filled with a ragout of meat or fish.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A sort of raised pie consisting of a delicate preparation of meat, fowl, or fish inclosed in a case of rich light puffpaste.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Cookery) A light puff paste, with a raised border, filled, after baking, usually with a ragout of fowl, game, or fish.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a small canapé - circular pieces of puff pastry with a small hole which accommodates various fillings, such as mushrooms, prawns, fruit, cheese, etc.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun puff paste shell filled with a savory meat mixture usually with a sauce

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French : vol, flight + au, with the + vent, wind.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French vol-au-vent ("windblown") literally, "flight in the wind"

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Examples

  • This large pastry shell is called vol-au-vent, she said pedantically.

    All That Glitters V.C.Andrews® 1995

  • This large pastry shell is called vol-au-vent, she said pedantically.

    All That Glitters V.C.Andrews® 1995

  • It is difficult to imagine Evgeny son of Alexander Lebedev delicately nibbling on a vol-au-vent in a supermarket cafeteria.

    Media Monkey's Diary 2011

  • Available in two sizes, these pre-cut discs of pastry bake up into vol-au-vent (hollow, cylinders of puff pastry) that can be treated like tart shells and filled with a variety of hot and cold, savory and sweet fillings.

    Pepperidge Farms Puff Pastry Shells, reviewed | Baking Bites 2009

  • Ben hasn't revealed what they bought, but I'm guessing Jus-Rol vol-au-vent pastry, Primula cheese, bacon bits and conditioner for Kate's lovely hair, which uni friends now remember as the loveliest, most fragrant hair ever grown out of a head in the whole of Christendom.

    Grace Dent's TV OD: The Royal Wedding Grace Dent 2010

  • In the Lorraine Show studio last week, TV chef Ed Baines is mashing up spready cheese and bacon bits before stuffing it in ready-roll vol-au-vent cases.

    Grace Dent's TV OD: The Royal Wedding Grace Dent 2010

  • Another dish listed on the menu is vol-au-vent, the filled puff pastry shells that became the Mexican bolovanes.

    The French Influence On Mexican Cooking: La Comida Afrancescada 2005

  • Another dish listed on the menu is vol-au-vent, the filled puff pastry shells that became the Mexican bolovanes.

    The French Influence On Mexican Cooking: La Comida Afrancescada 2005

  • Another dish listed on the menu is vol-au-vent, the filled puff pastry shells that became the Mexican bolovanes.

    The French Influence On Mexican Cooking: La Comida Afrancescada 2005

  • I don't know the exact difference between them, but I think vol-au-vent refers to the puff pastry bowl/presentation itself while bouchée à la reine refers to the entire dish/specific recipe for this Alsacian specialty.

    Archive 2006-12-01 Etienne 2006

Comments

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  • I bet the most famous quotation about this word appeared in chapter 6 of <Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows>, when Harry said to Ginny, "Someone else might kill off Voldemort while she(Mrs Weasley)’s holding us here making vol-au-vents?"

    May 11, 2009

  • i agree with isoglossian! that's why i looked it up at least.

    February 23, 2011