No. 2845

Truffles Stuffed

Truffes Farcies

Select seven or eight large, unpeeled truffles, having them very clean, round and of equal size; put them into a narrow saucepan one beside the other and cook them for eight or ten minutes while covered, adding salt and white or Madeira wine; leave them to get partly cold in this stock. Place in a small saucepan a few spoonfuls of cooked puree of foies-gras; mingle with it a little good reduced and thickened Madeira sauce (No. 492), add some raw egg-yolks and seasoning. Drain the truffles, cut a round piece from the top, remove it and empty the insides with a vegetable spoon (Fig. 91); cut up a part of these removed pieces and add them to the foies-gras. Use this preparation to fill the truffles; close the opening with the removed cover and return them to the original saucepan with a little of their broth and a little melted glaze (No. 402); heat them for ten minutes while basting, then remove and cook the contents, while covered, for seven or eight minutes longer, off the fire. Dress them in a vegetable dish and pour over their own stock.

← No. 2844 Truffles in Shells, Baked Mushrooms & Truffles No. 2846 Truffle Timbale a la Perigord →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes fresh raw black truffles, a stocked garde-manger and a brigade to make the cross-referenced sauces. Stripped of those assumptions, the method is straightforward: poach, hollow, stuff, glaze.

The trufflesRanhofer does not name a variety; he assumes fresh, unpeeled truffles, which is why they can be cooked eight to ten minutes and then hollowed out. Preserved truffles in tins or jars are already cooked and are likely to collapse under this treatment; if that is all you have, skip the poaching and use them cold before filling.
Let them cool in the liquidThe instruction to leave them "partly cold in this stock" matters: cooling in the liquid lets the truffles take up the salt and wine, which lifting them out hot would waste.
Madeira sauce and glazeNo. 492 is a demi-glace reduced with Madeira; a good modern substitute is a strong veal or beef stock reduced with dry Madeira to a syrupy consistency. No. 402 is glace de viande, stock boiled down until it sets to a dark jelly.
Foies-gras pureeHe means cooked foie gras passed through a sieve, not raw liver. A smooth foie gras mousse or a fine chicken-liver parfait, worked with a little of the Madeira sauce, gives the same texture.
Vegetable spoonA melon baller. Work from the cut top and leave a reasonably thick wall, or the shell may split when it is basted.
The egg yolksThe raw yolks bind the filling, and the dish relies on residual heat off the fire to set them. If that makes you uneasy, check the centre of a stuffed truffle at 160F before serving rather than trusting the clock.
Vessel"A narrow saucepan" is deliberate: the truffles should sit in a single snug layer so a small amount of wine covers them. A wide pan means more liquid and a weaker stock.
YieldSeven or eight truffles would make a course on their own for a small number of people, or stretch further as a garnish alongside roast poultry or filet of beef.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York in two spells, roughly 1862-76 and 1879-96, and The Epicurean (1894) is his attempt to set down the whole repertoire in one volume, cross-referenced like an engineering manual. Stuffed truffles belong to a moment when Perigord truffles were treated as a vegetable to be carved and filled rather than as a shaving to be scattered. The pairing with foie gras is standard French practice of the period, both products of southwest France and both, then as now, shorthand for luxury. What dates the recipe most is its confidence: the truffles are large, round, matched in size and used by the handful, in a way no restaurant would now attempt at the price.