No. 2485b

Truffle Decorations

Ornements en Truffes

For these decorations select large, mellow, sound black marbled truffles; cut them into thin slices a sixteenth of an inch thick, and arrange them as in shown Fig. 485. These truffle decorations are taken up with a metal needle, then dipped into half-set jelly, and applied to the object required to be decorated, the principal aim being to dispose them very regularly, and arrange them with taste. Truffle decorations can also be made by cutting the truffles as thin as a thread with a knife, and placing them at once in Madeira wine until required for use, then drip and lay them on a napkin. With these imitate the outlines of landscapes or any other ornamentation, using them for tracing designs imitating pen or pencil drawings. When the design is finished coat over with half-set white jelly.

← No. 2485a Galantine of Chicken The Cold Service No. 2486 Galantine of Chicken a la d'Orleans →

For the Modern Kitchen

A garnishing technique rather than a dish: black truffle cut paper-thin, set into aspic, and used as the black line in cold buffet work. Everything depends on the jelly being at the right stage.

The hinge: half-set jelly"Half-set" means aspic cooled to the point where it coats a spoon and just begins to thicken, syrupy but not yet firm. Warmer and the truffle slides; cooler and the coating goes cloudy and lumpy. Keep the bowl over a second bowl of cool water and stir it occasionally rather than letting it set at the edges.
"Black marbled" trufflesAlmost certainly the winter black truffle, Tuber melanosporum, whose flesh is black shot through with fine white veins — the marbling is what reads as texture on the plate. Summer truffle (aestivum) is paler and duller and will not give the same contrast. Preserved whole truffles in tins are the practical option and slice cleanly.
A sixteenth of an inchAbout 1.6 mm. A mandoline or truffle slicer gives an even sheet; a knife rarely will. Slice cold, straight from the refrigerator, and cut the shapes with aspic cutters or a small sharp knife on a chilled board.
"Thin as a thread"The second method is julienne, cut as fine as the truffle will allow, used as drawn line rather than as shape. Holding the threads in Madeira keeps them supple and stops them curling and drying while you work; drain them on a napkin or paper before laying them down or the wine will thin the jelly.
The metal needleA trussing needle, a fine skewer or a cocktail pick. The point is to move each piece without fingerprints, warmth or grease reaching it. A pair of fine tweezers is easier and does the same job.
White jellyThe finishing coat. "White" here most likely means a clear, colourless aspic rather than an opaque cream-whitened or chaud-froid glaze, which would obscure the design underneath. Apply it in thin successive coats, chilling between, rather than one heavy pour that will drag the truffle out of place.
Working temperatureDo all of this on a chilled item straight from the refrigerator and return it to the cold between stages. Truffle and aspic are both worked against the clock; in a warm kitchen the design will shift before the second coat sets.
Cost and substitutionBlack olive paste rolled thin, or thin sheets of very dark mushroom, gives a similar graphic effect at a fraction of the price, though neither has the marbling.

A Little History

This entry sits in the cold service of Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the record of his decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and it belongs to a nineteenth-century restaurant grammar in which cold dishes were surfaces to be drawn on. Aspic-glazed galantines, chaud-froid of poultry and mounted cold pieces were built for the buffet table and the sideboard, where they were looked at as long as they were eaten, and truffle supplied the one reliable black in a palette otherwise made of cream, pink and pale green. The instruction to imitate "pen or pencil drawings" is exact, and the book's own numbered figure suggests that the skill being taught here is draughtsmanship as much as cookery. The elaborate cold piece receded through the twentieth century, surviving in formal banquet work, where truffle on aspic is still the black line of choice.