Why it works: Truffle and wine work together. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 344 recipes. Both carry 3-ethylphenol, which smells must. The science ↓
Cocks’ Combs with Truffles in Aspic
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mold
Pack a plain cylinder mold in pounded ice.
Build the layers
Dip some rounds of truffles in half-set aspic jelly and arrange them in a circle against the inner sides of the mold.
Put a circle of Cocks’ Combs in the mold, also dipping them in the jelly.
Continue layering alternate circles of truffles and Cocks’ Combs until the mold is full.
Fill the mold with cold liquid jelly and leave in the ice for 1-2 hours until set.
Unmold and serve
Dip the mold in hot water to loosen the jelly, then turn it out onto a dish.
Optionally, place a small column of bread masked with fat in the center of the dish.
Garnish around the base of the jelly with croutons of aspic jelly.
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 + winetop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together344 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-ethylphenol (must).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cocks' combs
- Provide the tender, gelatinous bite that forms the body of the layers.
- Truffles
- Add a strong earthy aroma and visible dark contrast against the pale jelly.
- Aspic jelly
- Sets the layers together and holds the truffle and comb circles in place.
The step that matters
Dipping the layers in half-set aspic. Jelly that is too thin will run and let the layers slide, while jelly that has fully set will not stick them together. Half-set aspic is thick enough to hold each piece where it is placed and bond it to the next layer.
“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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