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Dessert

Truffles a LA Serviette

Truffles à la Serviette is a dish of truffles simmered in veal gravy and champagne, served in a white napkin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 Serviette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Select the finest truffles, discarding any with a musty smell.

  2. Wash and brush the truffles well with cold water, changing the water several times.

Cook

  1. Line a stewpan with slices of bacon and add the truffles.

  2. Add parsley, green onions, thyme, hay leaves, cloves, and sweet basil.

  3. Pour in enough rich veal gravy to cover the truffles and add champagne.

  4. Boil gently for one hour, then let them cool in the gravy.

Serve

  1. Reheat the truffles in the gravy when ready to serve.

  2. Lift them out, drain in a clean cloth, and serve neatly in a white napkin.

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. Thyme + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  3. Parsley + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Clove + basiltop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Finest truffles
Provide the main flavour and aroma that define the dish.
Slices of bacon
Add savoury fat and smoky flavour that infuses the truffles as they cook.
Rich veal gravy
Gives body and savoury depth, and moisture that keeps the truffles tender.
Champagne
Adds acidity and a light, fruity aroma to the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Boil gently for one hour. Boiling vigorously can toughen and break down the truffles and cloud the gravy. A gentle simmer keeps them tender while the liquid slowly infuses their aroma.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (truffle, parsley, thyme, clove, basil, veal, champagne):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against truffle, parsley, thyme, clove, basil, veal, 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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