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Chartreuse a LA Parisienne

A truffle and crayfish dish with veal farce, béchamel ragout, and clear Espagnole sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Chartreuse a LA Parisienne

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Cut the truffles into thin collops using a round cutter.

  2. Remove the tails from the crayfish and set aside.

  3. Prepare a mold with clarified butter and line the bottom and sides with paper.

  4. Form a ring at the bottom of the mold with the truffles, placing the crayfish tails in the center.

  5. Cut five long fillets from the fowl and flatten them.

  6. Sauté the fillets, let them cool, and press them against the sides of the mold with butter.

  7. Leave space for a row of cut truffles between each fillet, pressing them into the butter.

  8. Fill the bottom and sides with veal farce to cover the garniture completely.

Make the ragout

  1. Prepare a ragout with sweetbreads, truffles, mushrooms, artichoke bottoms, and collops of fowl in a reduced béchamel sauce.

  2. Once cooled, fill the chartreuse with the ragout, leaving half an inch from the top.

Close and steam

  1. Butter a piece of paper, spread farce over it, and cover the top of the mold.

  2. Use a hot salamander to remove the paper, sealing the edges with farce.

  3. Place the chartreuse in a stewpan and pour boiling water one-third up the mold.

  4. Cover with paper and close the stewpan, placing it over the stove with fire on top to steam for one hour.

  5. Carefully remove the mold and paper, then serve with a little clear Espagnole sauce.

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. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Mushroom + artichoketop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together447 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Crayfish + saucetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together195 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Truffle + vealtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together815 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Truffles
Provide a strong aroma and earthy flavor throughout the dish.
Veal farce
Forms a firm, cohesive layer that holds the garniture and sets during steaming.
Fillets from 1 large fowl
Form the lining around the mold and give a tender, meaty texture when cooked.
Sweetbreads
Add a soft, creamy texture to the filling.
Béchamel sauce
Binds the ragout so it holds together and stays moist.
Crayfish tails
Add delicate flavor and visual contrast in the centre of the truffle ring.

The step that matters

Steaming the chartreuse. The mold must be sealed with farce and steamed gently in water that reaches only one-third up its sides. Too much heat or water can overcook the farce and fillets, and an unsealed top lets moisture in, leaving the dish watery or loose.

“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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