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Truffles a LA Mervinette

A truffle dish simmered with bacon, herbs, and champagne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 Mervinette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the truffles

  1. Soak the truffles in fresh water for 1-2 hours to loosen dirt.

  2. Scrub them with a hard brush until clean.

  3. Wash the truffles thoroughly with cold water, changing the water several times.

Cook in the gravy

  1. Line a saucepan with slices of bacon.

  2. Add the truffles along with parsley, green onions, thyme, bay leaves, cloves, and sweet basil.

  3. Pour in enough rich broth to cover the truffles.

  4. Add ½ to 1 bottle of champagne.

  5. Boil gently for 1 hour.

  6. Remove from heat and let them cool in the gravy.

Serve

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

  2. Drain them in a clean cloth.

  3. Serve the truffles neatly in a fine white napkin to contrast with their dark color.

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
Serve as the main ingredient, whose earthy aroma and dark color define the dish.
Slices of bacon
Lines the pan, adding savory fat and smoky flavor to the cooking gravy.
Champagne
Adds acidity and aromatic complexity to the gravy as it simmers.

The step that matters

Boil gently for 1 hour. A gentle simmer lets the truffles soften and absorb flavor without breaking apart. A hard boil can toughen them and make the gravy cloudy.

Swap the onion

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