Family Recipe, Food and wine pairings

Every year, as the holidays approach, the same question comes up at the family dinner table: What should we serve as an appetizer, before the Christmas game or poultry? At Jean-Marie Bourgeois’s house, the answer hasn’t changed in years: bouchées à la reine, prepared just as his grandmother used to make them, paired with a well-chilled white Sancerre “Grande Réserve.”

This recipe kicks off our “Family Recipe” series: a member of the Bourgeois family regularly shares a dish they particularly love, paired with one of our vintages. Bon appétit!

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Serves 6 · Prep 1h15 · Cook 45 min

Ingredients

• 6 individual puff pastry vol-au-vent shells
• 250 g turkey breast, diced
• 6 rooster combs (or substitute extra sweetbread/chicken)
• 100 g veal sweetbread
• 200 g button mushrooms
• 40 g butter
• 30 g flour
• 1 chicken carcass
• 30 cl thick crème fraîche
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 carrot, 1 leek, 1 celery stick, cut into chunks
• 1 bouquet garni
• Fine salt and white pepper

Make the stock

In a large pot, cover the carrot, leek, celery and bouquet garni with water. Add the chicken carcass and bring to the boil. Separately, boil the rooster combs in water until tender, then drain and add them to the stock. Season with salt and pepper.

Once the vegetables are cooked, strain and reserve the stock and the combs.

Cook the mushrooms

Clean and slice the mushrooms, then sauté over high heat in a knob of butter until golden. Set aside.

Cook the meats

Cook separately: dice the sweetbread and the turkey breast, then brown both in a knob of butter. Season and set aside.

Make the sauce

Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour and cook briefly without colouring. Gradually whisk in the hot stock until smooth.

Off the heat, stir in the cream and egg yolk to finish and thicken the sauce.

Plating

Warm the pastry shells in the oven at 210°C for °F) 10 minutes. Fill each shell in layers: sauce, diced poultry, sweetbread, rooster combs and mushrooms. Serve immediately.

A vol-au-vent is a dish built on richness: béchamel, cream, sweetbread — everything is designed to coat the palate.

It calls for a wine generous enough to follow that richness without being drowned by it, and lively enough to cut through it.

Our white Sancerre "Grande Réserve" grows on the appellation's limestone clay soils, the terroir that gives Sancerre's roundest, most immediately approachable wines. Its texture meets the sauce on equal terms, while its bright acidity resets the palate with every bite — without ever trying to dominate the dish.

Serving note: serve the dish hot, with the wine chilled to around 12°C.

Jean-Marie's Tip

For even more flavourful mushrooms, add a few drops of soy sauce right at the end of cooking.

Wine

We chose to pait it with our white Sancerre "Grande Réserve". It is the cuvée we open most often at our own family table — generous enough for a rich dish, lively enough to open a festive meal.

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