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Ortolans, Stewed, with Truffles

A stew of ortolans and truffles, seasoned with bacon, stock, and Madeira wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Truffle and chicken work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 756 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Ortolans, Stewed, with Truffles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Make a large round hole in the middle of each truffle and fill it with chicken forcemeat.

  2. Remove the heads, necks, and feet from the ortolans, then season them with salt and pepper.

  3. Place each ortolan on its back inside a truffle and arrange them side by side in a deep stewpan.

Stew and serve

  1. Lay thin slices of bacon on top of the ortolans, then pour enough stock and Madeira to cover them.

  2. Simmer gently for 25 minutes.

  3. Strain the gravy, thicken it to a cream consistency, and pour it over the birds.

  4. Serve the ortolans and truffles on toast, piled high on the dish.

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.

  1. Truffle + chickentop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together756 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Truffle + madeira winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together195 recipes
  3. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  4. Chicken + madeira winetop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together95 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Truffle + peppertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,106 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Truffles
Hollowed shells that hold the forcemeat and birds, adding earthy aroma to the dish.
Chicken forcemeat
Fills the truffles, giving a soft, moist, savoury stuffing that sets as it cooks.
Ortolans
Small birds that are the main protein, cooked gently in stock until tender.
Stock
Liquid that gently cooks the birds and becomes the base of the gravy.
Madeira wine
Adds sweetness and depth to the braising liquid and gravy as it reduces.
Bacon
Lies over the birds, releasing fat and savoury flavour into the stewing liquid.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 25 minutes. A gentle simmer cooks the small birds through and keeps the stock clear, while a hard boil toughens the meat and makes the gravy cloudy.

“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.

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