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Fillets of Hakes Adx Truffes, or with Truffles

A hare fillet stewed with truffles, stock, Port wine, plain sauce, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Truffle and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,900 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Fillets of Hakes Adx Truffes, or with Truffles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fillets

  1. Cut the fillets from the hares and remove the thin skin.

  2. Poke small slips of truffles into the fillets using a small larding pin.

Make the sauce

  1. Stew the fillets gently in good stock with ½ cup of Port wine.

  2. Add 2 or 3 tablespoons of plain sauce to the stew.

  3. Boil the stew until the sauce thickens.

  4. Strain the sauce through a tammy into a stewpan with some stewed truffles.

  5. Boil the sauce again.

  6. Add a little lemon juice.

Serve

  1. Place the fillets on a dish.

  2. Pour the sauce over the fillets.

  3. Optionally, add a few mushrooms.

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. Truffle + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,900 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Port wine + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together570 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Lemon + mushroomtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Truffle + port winetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together61 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Sauce + mushroomtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,480 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Hare fillets
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender through gentle stewing in stock.
Truffles
Add a deep, earthy aroma that perfumes the meat and sauce.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth to the sauce as it reduces.
Plain sauce
Thickens the stew into a richer, coating sauce when boiled down.
Lemon juice
Adds a bright acidity that balances the richness of the sauce.

The step that matters

Boil the stew until the sauce thickens. Boiling reduces the liquid and concentrates flavour while the sauce thickens. Too little reduction leaves it thin and watery, while overboiling can make it too strong or salty.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Red currantfits better
  2. Plumfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against truffle, port wine, sauce, mushroom. 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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