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Puree of Truffles, for Garnitures

A smooth puree of truffles mixed with butter and Madeira wine, used as a garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Truffle and butter 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 ↓

Puree of Truffles, for Garnitures

Ingredients

Directions

Make the puree

  1. Pound the truffles and butter in a mortar into a fine paste.

  2. Rub the mixture through a fine sieve.

Finish the sauce

  1. Prepare a pint of Madeira wine sauce reduced with the juice of the truffles.

  2. Add the paste to the sauce.

  3. Stir off the heat until melted.

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 + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Truffle + madeira winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together195 recipes
  3. Butter + madeira winetop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together637 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Truffles
Provide the main flavour and aroma of the puree.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the paste blend smoothly into the sauce.
Madeira wine
Adds sweetness and depth as it reduces into the sauce.

The step that matters

Stir the paste in off the heat. Butter that gets too hot can separate and turn greasy. Stirring it in off the heat lets it melt gently and emulsify into the sauce for a smooth result.

“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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