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Preserve

Truffles to Keep a Year, or More

A method for preserving truffles by cooking them in stock, sherry, and fat for a year or more.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Truffles to Keep a Year, or More

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the truffles

  1. Wash the truffles in several waters and brush off any dirt.

  2. Place the truffles in a stewpan with the strong stock, fat, sherry, onions, sweet herbs, and mace.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil on a slow stove for one hour.

  4. Remove the truffles from the stewpan.

  5. Select the largest and roundest truffles for serving.

  6. Peel the remaining truffles.

Pot and seal

  1. Place the peeled truffles in sweet‑meat pots.

  2. Place the unpeeled truffles in the same sweet‑meat pots.

  3. Skim the fat from the braise.

  4. Clarify the skimmed fat.

  5. Boil the remaining fat to a glaze.

  6. Pour the glazed fat over the truffles.

  7. Add the hot fat to ensure the truffles are completely covered.

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. Sherry + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Onion + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  3. Truffle + sherrytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together297 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  4. Sherry + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,352 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetal (cream, earthy).

  5. Truffle + oniontop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together887 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Truffles
Are the main ingredient, preserved whole in their own flavour and fat.
Fat from a brown braise
Forms a sealing layer over the truffles that excludes air and helps preserve them.
Strong stock
Adds savoury body and depth to the liquid the truffles cook in.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic complexity to the cooking liquid.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aromatic flavour to the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Covering the truffles with hot fat. Fat must fully cover the truffles so no air reaches them, since exposure to air allows spoilage. Pouring it hot helps it flow into all gaps around the truffles before it sets.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (truffle, sherry, mace):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against truffle, sherry, mace. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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