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Croustade of Larks

A croustade of boned larks stuffed with forcemeat and truffles, baked in clarified butter and served with Perigueux sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Truffle and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,900 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Croustade of Larks

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a rather hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the croustade

  1. Cut the stale quarter loaf into a square shape resembling a croustade.

  2. Insert a fork in the center and fry it in hot lard until golden brown.

  3. Mix egg white and flour into a paste and set aside until dinner time.

Cook the larks

  1. Stuff each boned lark with forcemeat and a small truffle, shaping them into round balls.

  2. Place the larks in a sauté pan with clarified butter, season with pepper and salt, and cover with buttered paper.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 15 minutes until cooked.

Assemble and serve

  1. Reheat the croustade in the oven for 5 minutes before serving.

  2. Drain the larks and arrange them neatly in the croustade.

  3. Garnish with button mushrooms and crawfish, then pour Perigueux sauce over and around it.

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 + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,900 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Stale bread loaf
Forms the fried, crisp base that holds the larks.
Larks
Provide the main meat, which cooks through in the oven.
Forcemeat
Adds a moist, seasoned filling that keeps the lark meat juicy.
Truffles
Add a earthy, aromatic flavour to the stuffing.
Egg white and flour paste
Binds and seals the croustade so it holds its shape.

The step that matters

Frying the croustade until golden brown. Frying in hot fat dries and browns the bread surface, creating a crisp shell that stays firm under the moist filling and sauce. Too little heat leaves it greasy and soft.

“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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