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Truffles a LA Serviette

A truffle dish simmered in veal gravy and champagne, served in a napkin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Truffles a LA Serviette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the truffles

  1. Select the finest truffles, smelling them to reject any with a musty smell.

  2. Wash and brush the truffles well with cold water, changing the water several times.

Braise

  1. Line a stewpan with slices of bacon and add the truffles.

  2. Add parsley, green onions, thyme, bay leaves, cloves, and sweet basil.

  3. Pour in enough rich veal gravy to cover the truffles and add champagne.

  4. Boil gently for one hour, then let them cool in the gravy.

Serve

  1. Reheat the truffles in the gravy when ready to serve.

  2. Lift them out, drain in a clean cloth, and serve neatly in a white napkin.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Thyme + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  3. Parsley + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Clove + basiltop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Truffles
Main flavour; they are gently cooked in the gravy and champagne to become tender and aromatic.
Rich veal gravy
Liquid that surrounds the truffles, adding savoury body and moisture during the long gentle cook.
Champagne
Adds acidity and a light, aromatic lift to the cooking liquid.
Slices of bacon
Lines the pan, releasing fat and smoky savour into the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Boiling gently for one hour. Boiling hard rather than simmering can toughen and break the truffles and cloud the gravy. A gentle heat cooks them evenly and keeps the delicate aroma intact.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (truffle, parsley, thyme, clove, basil, veal, champagne):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against truffle, parsley, thyme, clove, basil, veal, champagne. 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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