Name: Timbale De Saumon Aux Truffes
Ingredients: 1 escalope de saumon; 2 tablespoons clarified butter; cooked truffles, finely sliced; ⅓ cup Madeira wine; truffle essence sauce (light espagnole sauce); macaroni

Why it works: Butter and truffle are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,209 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Timbale De Saumon Aux Truffes

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the salmon

Sauté the salmon escalope in clarified butter until cooked.
Drain the salmon and add the finely sliced cooked truffles and Madeira wine.

Sauce and serve

Sauce with the light espagnole sauce reduced to truffle essence.
Unmold the timbale and remove the macaroni.
Garnish with the salmon escalope and serve.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Butter + truffletop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,209 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Truffle + madeira winetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together195 recipes
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Madeira wine + saucetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together230 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Truffle + saucetop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,490 recipes

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Salmon escalope: Provides the main protein, which firms and turns opaque as it cooks.
Clarified butter: Cooks the salmon with a rich fat that browns lightly without burning as easily as whole butter.
Cooked truffles: Supply the earthy, aromatic flavour that defines the dish.
Madeira wine: Adds sweetness and depth as it reduces with the salmon and truffles.
Macaroni: Forms the structure of the timbale, holding its shape when unmoulded.

The step that matters

Sauté the salmon escalope in clarified butter until cooked.. Salmon overcooks quickly and turns dry and chalky once its proteins tighten too far. Clarified butter tolerates higher heat than whole butter, so it cooks the fish evenly without burning the milk solids.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.