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Truffles, a LA Piemontaise

A sandwich of French rolls filled with sautéed truffles, herbs, and sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Truffles, a LA Piemontaise

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 truffles

  1. Cut the truffles into scallops.

Cook the filling

  1. In a sauté pan, heat the Lucca oil.

  2. Add the truffles, parsley, thyme, garlic, mignonette pepper, and salt; fry for 5 minutes.

  3. Remove the garlic, then add the Italian or Espagnole sauce, glaze, and lemon juice.

  4. Toss everything together over the heat.

Assemble and bake

  1. Remove the tops of the French rolls and spread butter inside.

  2. Fill the rolls with the truffle mixture and place in the oven at 400°F (200°C) for 10 minutes until crisp.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh truffles
Provide the main flavor and aroma of the sandwich filling.
Lucca oil
Carries heat and flavor when the truffles are fried in the pan.
Italian or espagnole sauce
Adds body and moisture to the truffle mixture.
French rolls
Form the structure that holds the filling and crisps in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the inside of the rolls brown lightly.

The step that matters

Baking the filled rolls. Ten minutes at 400°F is enough to crisp the bread, but the filling is already cooked, so overbaking can dry the rolls and toughen the bread. Watch for a crisp exterior.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (truffle, parsley, thyme, garlic, pepper, sauce, lemon):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Basilfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against truffle, parsley, thyme, garlic, pepper, sauce, lemon. 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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