Truffles

Brian Clancy said:

A good friend of mine gave me 2 two very large black truffles for
Christmas. WOO HOO! Now all I have to do is come up
with a proper recipe to use them in.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
I consider myself a very advanced cook.

Right. If you have *two* truffles, you're looking at a lot more than
"a proper recipe to use them in." They go very, very far.

Go read about truffles. There's a lot you don't know.

Pastorio

"Bob (this one)" in news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Brian Clancy said:

A good friend of mine gave me 2 two very large black truffles for
Christmas. ... Now all I have to do is come up with a proper recipe to
use them in.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
I consider myself a very advanced cook.

Right. If you have *two* truffles, you're looking at a lot more than "a
proper recipe to use them in." They go very, very far.

Well now that depends. Marcella Hazan, for example, in her two-volume
_Classic Italian_ cookbooks, has a recipe of noodles tossed in finely grated
black truffle. "This dish should be reserved for lovers," she wrote (as I
remember). "Some tastes are too keen to share with a crowd, and in this
case, too expensive."

In older recipes, say 100 years ago, it was not unusual to call for 100-300g
of truffles (a quarter or half a pound) -- it was considered expensive, but
not extreme. (That was because worldwide production was higher and demand
was considerably lower, so the expense was much less.) That custom shows up
as late as 1950 in the _Gourmet Cook Book_ (the classic one, not the new
remake of the same title). It has a recipe for "Filet of beef in aspic
_Strasbourgeoise_" where you take a whole beef tenderloin, make an incision
down the center, stuff it with peeled black truffles, wrap in caul or sheet
larding, tie with string, brown in a Dutch oven, add a little Madeira, cover
and cook gently to rare or medium-rare, cool, chill, unwrap, glaze with
aspic, and serve cold. (With Madeira sauce.) I made this in 1987, I think
(for a party, mentioned in my amazon.com note on Wechsberg's great little
book _Blue Trout and Black Truffles_). There were NO leftovers, thanks in
part to a particular professor (a Platonist) who kept going back for more.

There's an old custom (again from more truffle-abundant days) of cooking
them in ashes and serving as a vegetable. (!) Paula Wolfert gets excited
about that in _The Cooking of Southwest France._

But whatever you do, don't wait forever, looking for the perfect
opportunity. My folks did that when given a large can of Italian truffles
in 1955. I still have the can, unopened. (It's past its prime.)

Good luck -- Max

Brian Clancy said:

A good friend of mine gave me 2 two very large black truffles for
Christmas. Now all I have to do is come up with a proper recipe to
use them in. I consider myself a very advanced cook.

Ditto on both; well, we got a couple small jars of truffles, black and
white. I picked up this book,

Truffles: Ultimate Luxury, Everyday Pleasure

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0471225088/qid=1105301160/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/103-7774947-6911043?v=glance&s=books

from one of Amazon's partners for well under list. It's quite good,
an intro section on the history, types, treatment, etc of truffles.
The rest of the book is recipes -- including many very interesting
ones which I'm anxious to try. Also some simple ones: omlets, mashed
potatoes -- with the simple addition of truffles. Good book.