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Boiled Capon

A boiled capon stuffed with truffle, foie gras, egg whites, bacon, and breadcrumbs, served with velouté sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Truffle and liver work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 395 recipes. Both carry 1-nonanal, which smells fatty, waxy. The science ↓

Boiled Capon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the truffles and stuffing

  1. Draw the Capon. Keep the fat on the rump.

  2. Peel the truffles and boil them in Madeira, covered.

  3. Pound truffle trimmings with an equal amount of breadcrumbs.

  4. Add foie gras, egg whites, and bacon to the truffle mixture. Season the mixture and sieve the mixture.

  5. Stuff the mixture into the Capon and make it bulge.

Truss and poach

  1. Truss the Capon with its legs under the skin.

  2. Rub with lemon and cover with bacon fat.

  3. Place in a stewpan with vegetable and bacon slices. Cover with white broth and top with buttered paper.

  4. Boil gently until done. Drain and remove the string.

Serve

  1. Layer poached forcemeat on an oblong dish and place the Capon on top.

  2. Garnish with cooked cocks' combs and truffles.

  3. Serve with veloute sauce in a sauceboat.

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 + livertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together395 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  2. Truffle + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,604 recipes

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

  3. Truffle + saucetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,490 recipes
  4. Liver + saucetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together499 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

  5. Liver + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,177 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Capon
Provides the main body of meat that is cooked whole and carved for serving.
Truffles
Give the stuffing a strong, earthy aroma that defines the dish.
Egg whites
Bind the stuffing so it holds together when sieved and poached.
Foie gras
Adds richness and fat, keeping the stuffing soft and moist.
Breadcrumbs (in the method)
Absorb moisture and give the stuffing body with the truffle trimmings.
Madeira
Adds sweetness and depth as the truffles cook in it.

The step that matters

Boil gently until done. Vigorous boiling toughens poultry proteins and can break up the forcemeat inside. A gentle simmer cooks the bird evenly and keeps the stuffing intact.

“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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