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Truffles

Small truffle squares simmered in Madeira wine and sauce, formed into compact masses, coated in breadcrumbs, and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Truffles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the truffles

  1. Wash and peel the truffles, then cut them into small squares.

  2. Sprinkle with nutmeg, salt, and pepper, then pour in the Madeira wine and boil for 2-3 minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. In another saucepan, combine the thick brown sauce and meat glaze, reduce by half, then add the liquor from the truffles and boil for a few minutes.

  2. Add the truffles to the sauce, stir well, and let it cool until it forms a compact mass.

Shape and fry

  1. Roll out some light pastry, place small pieces of the truffle mixture on it, cover, and cut into shapes.

  2. Coat with breadcrumbs, fry in boiling fat until light brown, then drain and serve.

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Truffle + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together527 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Truffle + madeira winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together195 recipes
  5. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Truffles
Provide the main earthy, aromatic flavour of the filling.
Thick brown sauce
Adds body and savoury depth, helping the filling hold together.
Meat glaze
Concentrates savoury flavour and gives the sauce a thicker, more cohesive texture.
Madeira wine
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth as it boils down with the truffles.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden browned coating when fried.

The step that matters

Cooling the truffle mixture until compact. The mixture must cool enough to firm into a compact mass so the pieces can be wrapped in pastry without falling apart. Cooling too little leaves it runny and hard to shape.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (truffle, pepper, madeira wine, sauce, meat, butter):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Nutmegthe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against truffle, pepper, madeira wine, sauce, meat, butter. 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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