Name: Pate-chaud of Leverets, with Truffles, a LA Perigueux
Ingredients: 2 leverets, cut into small joints; 3 ounces clarified butter; pepper, to taste; coarse sea salt, to taste; 4 ounces truffles, cut into thick slices; 1 small piece of glaze; Perigueux sauce, to taste

Why it works: Butter and truffle 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 ↓

Pate-chaud of Leverets, with Truffles, a LA Perigueux

Ingredients

2 leverets, cut into small joints
3 ounces clarified butter
pepper, to taste
coarse sea salt, to taste
4 ounces truffles, cut into thick slices
1 small piece of glaze
Perigueux sauce, to taste

Directions

Cook the leverets

Heat clarified butter in a sauté pan over medium heat.
Season the leveret joints with pepper and salt, then fry them until browned.
Add the truffles and glaze, cover, and simmer on low heat for 20 minutes.

Finish and serve

Stir in the Perigueux sauce and boil for 3 minutes.
Garnish the pâté-chaud and serve.

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.

Butter + truffletop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,209 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Truffle + saucetop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,490 recipes
Pepper + truffletop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,106 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

Leverets: Provide the main meat, which browns in butter to develop savoury flavour and firm texture.
Clarified butter: Conducts heat for frying and browning the joints without the milk solids burning.
Truffles: Contribute a concentrated earthy aroma that infuses the meat during gentle simmering.
Glaze: Adds body and gloss to the sauce and gives the joints a richer, savoury finish.

The step that matters

Browning the leverets before simmering. Searing the seasoned joints over medium heat builds browned, savoury flavour through the Maillard reaction. Crowding the pan or skipping the browning leaves the meat greyish and less flavourful.

“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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Pate-chaud of Leverets, with Truffles, a LA Perigueux