No. 2846

Truffle Timbale a la Perigord

Timbale de Truffes a la Perigord

Decorate a timbale mold with fanciful cuts of noodle paste (No. 142); dampen these and line the mold with a layer of fine foundation paste (No. 135) an eighth of an inch in thickness; cover both bottom and sides of the timbale with very thin bards of fresh fat pork. Peel as many medium-sized truffles as the timbale will hold, having them black and mellow; put them to cook in a foies-gras terrine, seasoning with salt, pepper, nutmeg, sprigs of parsley, thyme and bay leaf, also some minced ham and Madeira wine; place the terrine in the oven and as soon as the liquid comes to a boil take it out and let stand till cold, leaving the truffles in with the stock. Suppress the thyme and bay leaf, drain off the stock and reduce it with a pint of financiere sauce (No. 464) reduced to the consistency of a succulent sauce; transfer the truffles to the timbale, cover with a part of the sauce and lay over a flat of the same paste. Cook the timbale in a hot oven for three-quarters of an hour and serve unmolded; pour the remainder of the sauce into an aperture on top; serve at once.

← No. 2845 Truffles Stuffed Mushrooms & Truffles No. 2847 Turnips Glazed →

For the Modern Kitchen

A pastry-cased timbale of whole black truffles in a reduced Madeira sauce, written for a brigade kitchen with a truffle budget to match. The cross-references in the original point to other numbered recipes in The Epicurean; the notes below cover what they contain and what the vessels and temperatures mean.

What it costs"As many medium-sized truffles as the timbale will hold" gives no weight; the quantity depends entirely on the size of the mold, and for a large one it is a great many whole black truffles for a single dish. In 1894 Perigord truffles were expensive but obtainable in New York in season, and this is among the most costly dishes in the book. Cooking a few sliced truffles into a smaller pastry case gives the same idea at a survivable price.
The two pastesNo. 142, noodle paste, is a stiff flour-and-egg dough rolled thin and stamped into shapes for decoration; No. 135, "fine foundation paste," is a firm short pastry meant to hold a mold's shape without slumping. A modern hot-water crust or a firm pâte à pâté does the same job. The decorative cuts are dampened and pressed against the mold so they end up on the outside of the baked case.
Bards of fresh fat porkSheets of unsmoked pork back fat, sliced paper-thin, lining the pastry. They baste the truffles from the inside and keep the crust from soaking through. Fatback from a butcher, or thin sheets of unsmoked lardo, is the substitute; sliced bacon changes the flavour entirely.
Foies-gras terrineHere this means the vessel, not the dish: a lidded earthenware terrine of the kind used for potting foie gras. Any small covered casserole or Dutch oven of a size that holds the truffles snugly will serve.
The par-cooking is brief on purposeThe truffles go into the oven in seasoned Madeira with ham only until the liquid boils, then come out and cool in their own stock. That is an infusion, not a braise he ppastry. Truffle aroma is volatile, and prolonging this stage risks flattening it.
Financière sauceFinanciere sauce -- No. 464 is a Madeira-based demi-glace finished with truffle essence. A well-reduced brown sauce or demi-glace with Madeira and the strained truffle stock stands in. "Reduced to the consistency of a succulent sauce" means it should coat a spoon heavily, since a thin sauce will steam the pastry from within.
Hot ovenThe original gives no temperature; "hot" is conventionally read as somewhere in the 400-450F range. Three-quarters of an hour at that heat suits a large, thick-walled case; check the crust at 30 minutes and tent it if it colours early.
The apertureThe recipe mentions the aperture only when the reserved sauce is poured in after unmolding; it does not say when the opening is made. Practically, an opening in the top lid before baking also lets steam escape, as with a raised pie, and the sauce should still be thick when it goes in.
YieldThe recipe gives neither a mold size nor a number served; a timbale of this richness would serve a table as a course on its own. It does not reheat well; the crust softens and the truffle aroma goes.

A Little History

Perigord, in southwest France, was and remains the byword for the black winter truffle, Tuber melanosporum, and by the nineteenth century "a la Perigord" or "a la perigourdine" on a French menu simply signalled that the dish was built around black truffles, usually with Madeira and foie gras nearby. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete record of what that kitchen could produce, and its truffle recipes depend on a trade in imported preserved and fresh truffles that ran through the great American hotels in the 1880s and 1890s. The timbale itself, built in a mold and unmolded whole, with a vent on top for the sauce, is characteristic of that era, where a dish was expected to arrive as an object before it was eaten. Serving whole truffles as the substance of a course rather than as a garnish was the clearest way a kitchen could state its expense, and Ranhofer gives several variations on the theme in this section.