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Truffles, Tourte of

A pastry dish containing truffles, ham, carrot, onion, bay leaf, sweet herbs, salt, champagne, and bacon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and onion 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 ↓

Truffles, Tourte of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the truffles

  1. Wash and pick the truffles, then place them in a stew pan.

Stew the filling

  1. Add the ham, carrot, onion, bay leaf, sweet herbs, salt, and champagne.

  2. Cover with rashers of bacon and stew until nearly a jelly.

Bake and serve

  1. Let cool, then place the truffles and seasoning into a crust.

  2. Bake the tourte 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. Carrot + oniontop 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

Fine truffles
Provide the main earthy, aromatic flavour of the filling.
Champagne
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich stewed filling.
Ham
Contributes savoury, salty depth to the stewed filling.
Bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour as it covers and slowly stews the filling.

The step that matters

Stew until nearly a jelly. Stewing slowly until the liquid is nearly a jelly concentrates flavour and gives a set, sliceable filling. Stop too early and the filling stays runny; go too long and it can dry out or taste overly reduced.

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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