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Chapon Truffe- -truffled Capon

A capon stuffed with truffles, garlic, allspice, and lard, then wrapped in buttered paper and roasted.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Chapon Truffe- -truffled Capon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the capon

  1. Pick, singe, and draw the capon as explained for Capon, Derby Fashion.

Make the truffle lard

  1. Pound the truffle peelings with garlic, allspice, and brandy.

  2. Add the raw leaf lard and continue to pound, then rub through a sieve.

  3. Mix in the halved truffles.

Stuff and rest

  1. Place the sliced truffle between the skin and breast of the capon.

  2. Truss the capon into a nice shape and cover the breast with fat pork slices.

  3. Wrap the capon in buttered paper and refrigerate for 2 to 3 days.

Roast

  1. Roast the capon carefully with the paper on, removing it only at the end to allow browning.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Truffle + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethylphenol (must).

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Garlic + allspicetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Truffles
Provide the dominant aroma and flavour that perfumes the meat and fat.
Raw leaf lard
Adds richness and moisture, carrying the truffle flavour through the bird.
Brandy
Extracts and carries truffle aroma when pounded with the peelings.
Fat pork slices
Cover the breast to baste it and keep it moist during roasting.
Butter
Wraps the bird, adding fat that helps the paper brown and keeps the skin moist.

The step that matters

Removing the paper only at the end. Keeping the buttered paper on protects the skin and breast from drying out early; removing it at the end lets the surface brown properly.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (truffle, clove, allspice, brandy, pork, butter):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against truffle, clove, allspice, brandy, pork, butter. 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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