Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
A Fricandeau De Volaille Avec Truffles
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the fowl
Bone the fowl and lard it with bacon seasoned with salt and pepper.
Line the bottom of a stewpan with slices of fat bacon.
Place the bones and trimmings of the fowl on the bacon.
Place the fowl on top of the bones and bacon.
Add the cleaned truffles, stock, bay leaves, onion with cloves, and sweet herbs.
Cover the fowl with more slices of bacon and lay paper over it.
Stew and brown
Set the stewpan on a stove and let it simmer gently for about 1.5 hours.
Put the fowl in a 400°F (200°C) oven for a few minutes to brown the bacon and make it crisp.
Make the gravy and serve
Serve the fowl on a dish with the gravy it was stewed in.
Strain the gravy.
Reduce the gravy.
Add the sliced truffles and white wine to the gravy.
Garnish with paste leaves and cresses.
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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Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
-
Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Onion + white winetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,535 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,901 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
-
Clove + white winetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,715 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fowl
- Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender through slow, gentle simmering.
- Bacon
- Larding and lining add fat and moisture, then crisp to brown the surface.
- Stock
- Braising liquid that cooks the fowl and forms the base of the gravy.
- White wine
- Adds acidity and aroma to the gravy as it reduces.
- Truffles
- Add a distinctive earthy aroma to the gravy and dish.
The step that matters
Gentle simmering of the fowl. Simmering slowly keeps the meat tender and juicy; a rapid boil toughens muscle proteins and can dry the bird out.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, clove, white wine, truffle):
- Shallotfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Carrotfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, clove, white wine, truffle. 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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