Why it works: Truffle and white wine work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 425 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓
Truffles Au Vin
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Clean and brush the truffles.
Cook
Place the truffles in a stewpan with the bacon, sweet herbs, salt, bay leaf, and wine or champagne.
Bring to a boil and cook for 45 minutes.
Serve
Serve with the sauce reduced or without sauce, if preferred.
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.
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Truffle + white winetop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together425 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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, becoming tender and flavourful as they simmer in the liquid.
- Slices of fat bacon
- Add fat and savoury, smoky flavour that carries into the cooking liquid.
- White wine or champagne
- Provides acidity and liquid that gently cooks the truffles and builds the sauce.
The step that matters
Bringing to a boil and cooking for 45 minutes. Once the liquid reaches a boil, it should be kept at a steady simmer rather than a hard boil, because vigorous boiling can toughen and break down delicate truffles and cloud the liquid. Watch the heat so the wine reduces slowly and evenly.
“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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