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Puree of Truffles, for Garnitures

A fine paste of truffles and butter, mixed with Madeira wine sauce, used as a garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 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 paste

  1. Pound the truffles and butter in a mortar until you have a fine paste.

  2. Rub the mixture through a fine sieve.

Finish the sauce

  1. Prepare the Madeira wine sauce and reduce it with the juice from the truffles.

  2. When ready to serve, add the truffle paste to the sauce and 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 + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Madeira wine + saucetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together230 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. 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

Truffles
Provide the main earthy aroma and flavour of the puree.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying the truffle aroma and giving a smooth texture.
Madeira wine sauce
Forms the liquid base, adding depth and sweetness that complements the truffles.

The step that matters

Stirring the paste into the sauce off the heat. Butter can separate or break if the sauce is too hot, leaving a greasy texture. Stirring off the heat lets the paste melt gently and emulsify smoothly into the sauce.

“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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