Chef Juliette
Mayonnaise de Volaille
Cold roast chicken, ciseled lettuce, and a shining coat of homemade mayonnaise, arranged with capers, olives, anchovies, eggs, and lettuce hearts, then tossed at the table as the canon intends.
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Salade de Truffes
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 2024, Salade de Truffes, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Salade de Truffes puts every fault in view: paper-thin raw black truffle, a velvet dressing of hard-boiled yolk, oil, and lemon, with pepper ground at the final moment.
Salads
French
Special Occasion
Dinner Party
New Years
25 min
Active Time
11 min cook•45 min total
Yield4 servings
Salade de Truffes teaches restraint at its most exacting. Know this before you touch the saucepan: the hard-boiled-yolk sauce must carry the truffle's perfume across the palate without becoming the first thing you taste. The shavings should gleam, not drown, with lemon lifting the aroma and freshly ground pepper making it clearer.
The source formula assumes a garde-manger (cold-kitchen cook) with ripe truffles to pare, a sharp truffle slicer ready, and cooked yolks waiting. It calls for no saucier, no stockpot kept hot, and no salamander; adding such machinery would be pomp, not fidelity. This version scales the dish to 4 small first-course portions, using 4¼ ounces of truffle and a fork-built sauce. Perfectly identical circles are brigade scaffolding. Paper-thin raw truffle and the yolk, oil, lemon, salt, and pepper dressing are the dish itself. One cook, one stove, one evening.
When it is right, the dark shavings overlap like thin leaves under a pale-gold sheen, and the aroma reaches the diner before the fork does. Cook the eggs and seat your guests before you begin cutting, because dressed truffles wait for nobody. The step that decides the salad is the shaving: almost transparent, still intact, and done only at the final moment.
Salade de Truffes belongs to the Parisian grand-kitchen salad repertoire, supplied by black truffles from Périgord and the oak country of Vaucluse, whose truffle traditions remain distinct. The preparation carried the ingredient from regional markets into formal dining without reducing it to garnish: truffle became the body of the salad. Hard-boiled yolk served as the binder, giving oil and lemon enough substance to cling without introducing mustard or herbs that would cover the perfume.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
fresh ripe black truffles (Tuber melanosporum)
Quantity
4¼ ounces (120 g)
brushed clean and peeled very thinly
large eggs
Quantity
3
mild olive oil
Quantity
3 tablespoons (45 ml / 41 g)
freshly squeezed lemon juice
Quantity
1 tablespoon (15 ml / 15 g)
fine sea salt
Quantity
½ teaspoon (2.5 ml / 3 g)
freshly ground black pepper
Quantity
¼ teaspoon (1.25 ml / 0.6 g)
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| fresh ripe black truffles (Tuber melanosporum)brushed clean and peeled very thinly | 4¼ ounces (120 g) |
| large eggs | 3 |
| mild olive oil | 3 tablespoons (45 ml / 41 g) |
| freshly squeezed lemon juice | 1 tablespoon (15 ml / 15 g) |
| fine sea salt | ½ teaspoon (2.5 ml / 3 g) |
| freshly ground black pepper | ¼ teaspoon (1.25 ml / 0.6 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •1-quart (1-liter) saucepan with lid
- •Small soft produce brush
- •3-inch (7.5-cm) sharp paring knife
- •Adjustable truffle slicer or narrow mandoline with hand guard
- •1-quart (1-liter) wide mixing bowl
- •Fork and small whisk
Instructions
- 1
Cook the eggs
Place the eggs in a small saucepan and cover them by 1 inch (2.5 cm) with cold water. Bring the water to a full boil, cover the pan, remove it from the heat, and leave the eggs for 11 minutes. Transfer them to cold water for 5 minutes, then peel and halve them. Lift out the yolks and reserve the whites for another meal. The yolks should be fully set and yellow; a grey rim means they cooked too long, but it is cosmetic and need not send three good eggs to the bin.
- 2
Clean and peel
Rinse each truffle briefly under a thin stream of cold water while scrubbing every crevice with a small, soft brush. Dry them at once and completely. Using a very sharp paring knife, remove the dark outer skin in the thinnest peel you can manage, following the source formula without sacrificing good flesh. Save the fragrant peelings for eggs or butter, but do not add them to this salad; the texture here must remain delicate.
- 3
Shave the truffles
Set an adjustable truffle slicer or narrow mandoline to its finest practical setting. Shave the truffles directly into a wide bowl, rotating each one as you work so the slices stay broad and nearly translucent. Do not press harder when the blade catches. Dry the truffle and open the blade by the smallest fraction, because a damp surface or setting that is too tight causes tearing. Use the hand guard as the truffle grows small, then cut the final nub into the thinnest slivers your knife allows.
- 4
Build the yolk sauce
Mash the hard-boiled yolks with the salt and freshly ground pepper until no large crumbs remain. Work in the oil one teaspoon at a time, pressing and stirring until each addition disappears before adding the next; the yolks will become smooth, thick, and softly glossy. Finish with the measured lemon juice, a few drops at first and then the rest. If the oil beads around the yolk, stop pouring, add ½ teaspoon of the measured lemon juice, and mash firmly against the bowl until the sauce gathers again. Ça se rattrape. Continue more slowly.
- 5
Dress and serve
Spoon three-quarters of the sauce over the truffle shavings and turn them gently with two forks, lifting from beneath so the slices remain intact. Add only enough of the remaining sauce to leave every shaving under a thin pale-gold film; the truffle must gleam rather than sit in a paste. If you over-dress it, lift the shavings onto a clean plate and leave the excess sauce behind. Taste one shaving for salt, arrange the salad loosely across 4 plates, and serve within 10 minutes. À table!
Chef Tips
- •This dish needs fresh, ripe black truffle. It should smell strongly through its wrapping, with an earthy, woodland perfume and no sour or ammonia note. Preserved truffles have surrendered much of their perfume to the jar, while bottled truffle oil brings a different, blunt aroma. Neither can carry a raw salad.
- •Use a mild oil. A fierce, peppery oil competes with the truffle, and there is nowhere for that fault to hide. The oil's work is texture and shine; the freshly ground pepper supplies the measured bite.
- •A dedicated truffle slicer gives the best control, but a narrow handheld mandoline with a proper guard is an honest home equivalent. Never chase the final shaving with bare fingertips. The small nub is worth less than your hand.
- •Serve the salad as a small first course with brut Champagne or a mature dry white Burgundy. Bread may accompany it, but no leaves, herbs, mustard, or decorative vegetables belong on the plate.
Advance Preparation
- •The eggs may be cooked 1 day ahead and refrigerated in their shells. Bring the yolks toward cool room temperature before making the sauce so they accept the oil more readily.
- •Measure the oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper and set out the plates up to 4 hours ahead. Clean, peel, shave, and dress the truffles only when the diners are ready; the finished salad does not improve by waiting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 80g)
Calories
170 calories
Total Fat
14 g
Saturated Fat
3 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
11 g
Cholesterol
140 mg
Sodium
345 mg
Total Carbohydrates
5 g
Dietary Fiber
3 g
Sugars
1 g
Protein
7 g
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