Sauce Périgueux and Sauce Périgordine

Both sauces take their name from the Périgord region of southwestern France — the Dordogne, the epicentre of French black truffle production. Périgueux is the regional capital. The sauces were the prestige preparations of the grand 19th-century French restaurant — served over tournedos, veal medallions, truffle-studded foie gras, and the luxury preparations of the classical menu.

A Madeira-enriched demi-glace finished with diced or sliced black truffle — the most luxurious of the classical compound brown sauces, and the most expensive per tablespoon of anything in the classical repertoire. Sauce Périgueux uses truffle dice; sauce Périgordine uses whole truffle slices for more dramatic visual impact. Both depend on the quality of the truffle absolutely: a good demi-glace with poor truffle produces a good brown sauce with a slight earthiness. A good demi-glace with genuine Périgord black truffle (Tuber melanosporum) produces a sauce of almost incomprehensible complexity.

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Truffle's aromatic chemistry is the most studied and least replicated in the flavour sciences — its 50+ identified volatile compounds include unique sulphur-containing molecules that do not appear elsewhere in the food world. As Segnit notes, the traditional pairing of truffle and egg (omelette aux truffes, scrambled eggs with truffle) is not merely traditional — the egg's sulphur compounds and the truffle's sulphur volatiles share structural similarities that produce mutual amplification on the palate. Madeira and truffle is equally logical: Madeira's oxidative ageing produces lactone and aldehyde compounds that provide a fat-soluble aromatic framework into which the truffle's volatile compounds dissolve and are stabilised, delaying their volatilisation and prolonging the flavour experience.