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Ortolans, Stewed with Truffles

Stewed small birds with truffles, bacon, Madeira, stock, and brown sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Ortolans, Stewed with Truffles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the birds

  1. Remove the heads and feet from the ortolans and take out the crops.

  2. Season the birds with pepper, coarse sea salt, and grated nutmeg.

  3. In a stewpan, layer the sliced truffles and ortolans.

Stew

  1. Pour equal measures of Madeira and stock over the birds.

  2. Add a slice or two of bacon on top.

  3. Stew gently for 20 minutes.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Dish the birds high with the truffles on a large crouton.

  2. Strain the gravy.

  3. Boil the gravy.

  4. Skim the gravy well.

  5. Add a little brown sauce to the gravy.

  6. Boil again until thick.

  7. Pour the gravy over the dish.

  8. Serve hot.

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 + nutmegtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together550 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

  3. Truffle + saucetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,490 recipes
  4. Nutmeg + saucetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,244 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Truffle + peppertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,106 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Ortolans
Are the main meat, cooked gently so the flesh stays tender in the liquid.
Truffles
Contribute a strong earthy aroma that perfumes the stewing liquid and the finished dish.
Madeira
Adds sweetness and depth to the braising liquid, rounding out the gravy's flavour.
Stock
Provides the savoury liquid base that cooks the birds and becomes the gravy.
Bacon
Adds salty, smoky fat that bastes the birds and flavours the gravy as it stews.
Brown sauce
Adds body and colour to the gravy, helping it reduce to a thicker consistency.

The step that matters

Boil the gravy again until thick. Reducing the strained, skimmed liquid concentrates its flavour and thickens it. Boiling too little leaves it thin, while overboiling can make it salty and sticky.

Swap the nutmeg

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against truffle, pepper, sauce. 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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