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Plover with Truffles

Plover with truffles is a roasted plover cooked with butter, stock, sherry, and truffles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and truffle are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,209 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Plover with Truffles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pan

  1. Truss the plovers and place them breast down in a saucepan.

  2. Add the truffles sliced thinly and the butter.

  3. Sprinkle in a clove, a bay leaf, and a dust of cayenne.

Cook

  1. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  2. Pour in the stock and a glass of sherry.

  3. Cook slowly until done.

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. Butter + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Meat + truffletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together527 recipes

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

  3. Butter + meattop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Clove + truffletop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together514 recipes

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

  5. Butter + clovetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,045 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Plovers
The main protein, cooked whole so the meat stays moist and tender.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the birds brown and carry the truffle flavour.
Truffles
Provide a strong earthy aroma that perfumes the butter and the cooking liquid.
Stock
Adds moisture and savoury depth, keeping the birds from drying as they cook slowly.

The step that matters

Cook slowly until done. Low, slow heat with a little liquid keeps the meat tender and juicy. High heat tightens the proteins and dries the birds before they are cooked through.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, meat, truffle. 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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