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Truffle Tart

A savory tart made with truffles, ham, onion, carrot, herbs, bacon, and champagne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and carrot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Truffle Tart

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and pick the truffles.

  2. Line a stewpan with thin slices of ham.

Make the filling

  1. Add the truffles, onion, carrot, herbs, salt, and bay leaf.

  2. Moisten with champagne.

  3. Lay bacon on top, cover, and stew until almost jelly-like.

  4. Let cool, then transfer to a lined tin.

Bake

  1. Bake until golden.

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. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Truffle + champagnetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together120 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Truffle + hamtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together516 recipes

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

  4. Ham + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,159 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Truffle + oniontop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together887 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Truffles
Provide the main aroma and flavour that defines the dish.
Champagne
Adds moisture and acidity while the mixture stews.
Thin rashers of bacon
Adds savoury fat that bastes the truffles as they stew.
Thin slices of ham
Lines the stewpan, adding savoury, salty flavour to the filling.

The step that matters

Stew until almost jelly-like. Stewing slowly in a covered pan with liquid softens the ingredients and concentrates their flavour. Stopping before the liquid fully reduces keeps the mixture moist, and cooling lets it set firm enough to hold in the tart.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (truffle, ham, onion, champagne):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against truffle, ham, onion, 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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