PreparationReferences
Demi-Glace
A 48–72 hour reduction, done properly
The sauce base. Use about 4 frozen cubes.
Sauce Périgueux Spaghettini with Seared Duck Breast
Recipes · Sauce Périgueux Spaghettini with Seared Duck Breast
First revision · 23 SEP 2026
RecipeFirst revisionVia mcp
Sauce Périgueux Spaghettini with Seared Duck Breast
A demi-glace truffle sauce on spaghettini, with cold-pan duck breast and a bitter leaf salad
Sauce Périgueux is the classical French truffle sauce. It is built on demi-glace, not on butter. Here it dresses spaghettini, and a seared duck breast goes beside it. The truffles are jarred pieces in oil. They go into the sauce off the heat, because their aroma compounds are volatile. Pecorino goes on top for acidity. A rocket salad with lemon cuts the richness.
For
2 servingsWhy the first revision
First version. Written from a planning session. It was not cooked before it was stored.
Tap a step to cross it out0 / 27 done
Duck
10 steps-
Take the duck breasts out of the refrigerator 30 min before you cook them.
Time 30 min -
Cut the skin in a crosshatch, with cuts 5 mm apart. Cut through the fat, but not into the meat.
Tool Sharp knife -
Dry the skin fully with kitchen paper.
-
Put 2 g of salt on the meat side only. Do not salt the skin.
-
Set the heat to medium-low. Cook for 12 to 15 min to render the fat.
Pour the fat into a bowl two or three times during this step. Keep it for roast potatoes.
Time 12 min–15 minWork Rendering -
Bring 3 L of water to a full boil in a large pot. Add 30 g of salt.
Do this while the duck renders.
Tool Large pot -
When the skin is deep gold and crisp, turn the duck. Cook the meat side for 3 to 4 min.
Time 3 min–4 minWork Searing -
Remove the duck when the centre reads 54 °C.
Temp 54 °CTool Probe thermometer -
Rest the duck skin side up and uncovered for 8 min or longer. Make the sauce and pasta now.
The centre rises to about 57 °C during the rest. A cover traps steam and softens the skin.
Time 8 min
Sauce
2 steps-
Pour the fat out of the duck pan. Keep the brown residue in the pan.
Tool Frying pan -
Melt the demi-glace in the duck pan over medium-low heat. Do not reduce it.
Pasta
1 step-
Put the spaghettini in the boiling water. Cook it 1 min less than the time on the packet.
Work Boiling
Sauce
4 steps-
Add the Madeira to the melted demi-glace. Simmer for 2 to 3 min.
Time 2 min–3 minWork Reduction -
Pour the juices from the resting duck into the pan.
-
Remove the pan from the heat.
-
Add 25 g of truffle pieces and 15 ml of the jar oil. Stir gently. Keep 5 g of pieces back.
Do not put the pan back on high heat after this step. Heat drives off the truffle aroma.
Pasta
4 steps-
Toss over the lowest heat for 60 to 90 s, until the sauce is glossy and holds to the pasta.
Time 1 min–2 minWork Emulsifying -
If the sauce is too thick, add pasta water 15 ml at a time.
-
Add the black pepper.
Salad
1 step-
Toss the rocket with 15 ml of lemon juice and the olive oil. Coat the leaves lightly.
Plate
5 steps-
Cut the duck across the grain at a steep angle, into slices 5 mm thick.
Tool Sharp knife -
Put the spaghettini in the centre of warm bowls. Put the duck slices beside it.
-
Put the 5 g of kept truffle pieces on the pasta.
-
Grate the pecorino over the pasta.
-
Serve the salad on a side plate. Serve at once.
The truffle aroma drops quickly after plating.
Notes
11
CAUTION · SUBSTITUTION Protein and wine replacements
If you cannot get duck breast, use a skin-on chicken thigh with the bone removed. Use the same cold-pan method. The dish loses the iron and mineral taste of duck, which pairs well with truffle.
Madeira is the classical wine for Périgueux. Dry sherry (fino or amontillado) is the next best. Dry red wine also works: simmer it 1 min longer so the tannin softens.
Provenance
Made to replace a Gordon Ramsay truffle butter sauce. That sauce showed the truffle, but the taste was flat. The brief was to showcase jarred truffles, and not to make a dish that is fully Italian.
Related
1The pattern
dressed noodlesThe plain idea under this dish. Cook it with what you have. The full recipe is on the Method tab.
spaghettini + demi-glace and fortified wine sauce made in the duck pan + truffle added off the heat + crisp-skin seared duck breast + sharp sheep cheese + lemon-dressed rocket
Other dishes with this pattern: dressed noodles.
The parts
6starch
200 g spaghettini, boiled in 3 L water with 30 g salt, 1 min less than the packet time. Keep the pasta water.
The pasta finishes in the sauce. Its surface starch and the pasta water help the sauce hold to it.
sauce
100 to 120 ml demi-glace melted in the duck pan, not reduced. 60 ml Madeira, simmered 2 to 3 min. The duck resting juices.
Gelatin makes the sauce coat the pasta and the tongue. The reduced stock and the browned residue give a deep base for the truffle.
- Swap: Dry sherry (fino or amontillado) in place of the Madeira.. The record calls it the next best wine after Madeira.
- Swap: Dry red wine in place of the Madeira.. It works. Simmer it 1 min longer so the tannin softens.
- Swap: Butter in place of the demi-glace, as a truffle butter sauce.. Butter carries the truffle aroma but gives it no background. The sauce tastes rich but empty. The dish was built to replace this sauce.
aromatics
30 g jarred truffle pieces with 15 ml of the jar oil. 25 g of pieces and the oil go into the sauce off the heat. 5 g of pieces go on top.
Truffle is the aroma of the dish. Its compounds are volatile, so heat must not reach them after they go in.
protein
2 duck breasts, skin on. Score the skin, salt the meat side only, start skin down in a cold, dry pan. Remove at 54 °C in the centre.
The cold pan melts the fat under the skin before the skin browns, so the skin gets crisp. The pan keeps the browned residue for the sauce.
cheese
30 g pecorino, finely grated, on top.
Pecorino is sharp and acidic. It gives a bright edge next to the truffle.
- Swap: Parmesan in place of the pecorino.. Parmesan adds more glutamate to a sauce that already holds a lot. The dish becomes heavier and less clear, and loses the acid edge.
sideOptional
80 g rocket tossed with 15 ml lemon juice and 15 ml extra virgin olive oil.
Bitter leaves and lemon cut the richness.
The basic method
8- Cut the duck skin in a crosshatch, with cuts 5 mm apart. Cut through the fat, not into the meat. Dry the skin. Put 2 g salt on the meat side only.
- Put the duck skin side down in a cold, dry pan. Cook on medium-low heat for 12 to 15 min. Pour off the fat two or three times.
- When the skin is deep gold and crisp, turn the duck. Cook the meat side for 3 to 4 min. Remove it when the centre is 54 °C. Rest it skin side up, uncovered, for 8 min or longer.
- Boil 3 L water with 30 g salt. Cook the spaghettini 1 min less than the packet time.
- Pour the fat out of the duck pan. Keep the brown residue. Melt the demi-glace on medium-low heat. Do not reduce it. Add the Madeira. Simmer for 2 to 3 min. Add the duck resting juices.
- Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in 25 g truffle pieces and 15 ml jar oil. Do not put the pan back on high heat.
- Move the pasta into the pan with tongs. Toss on the lowest heat for 60 to 90 s, until the sauce is glossy. If it is too thick, add pasta water 15 ml at a time.
- Cut the duck into slices 5 mm thick. Put the pasta in warm bowls with the duck beside it. Add the 5 g kept truffle and the pecorino. Serve the dressed rocket on the side. Serve at once.
What the full recipe adds
The full recipe explains why demi-glace carries truffle better than butter. Truffle aroma is mostly volatile sulphur compounds that dissolve in fat. Demi-glace adds gelatin, so the sauce stays on the tongue longer. It adds free glutamate, so the truffle tastes deep and not only smells. It adds Maillard compounds from roast bones, a brown background for the truffle to sit on. It explains why the truffle goes in off the heat: the warm sauce releases the aroma into the fat but does not drive it off, and the kept pieces release theirs from the heat of the pasta at the table. It explains the cold-pan start, why salt stays off the skin (it pulls water and slows crisping), and the rest uncovered (a cover traps steam and softens the skin). The centre rises to about 57 °C during the rest. Note: this version was written from a planning session and was not cooked before it was stored.
The science
4What is actually happening in the dish, and why the techniques work.
M1
Why demi-glace carries truffle better than butter demi-glace base · truffle added off the heat
Most truffle aroma is volatile sulphur compounds, such as dimethyl sulphide and bis(methylthio)methane. These dissolve in fat.
Butter dissolves them, but it gives them no background. The sauce tastes rich but empty.
Demi-glace does three things that butter cannot:
- Gelatin. It makes the sauce thick. The sauce stays on the tongue longer, so the aroma stays longer.
- Glutamate. The reduced stock is high in free glutamate. The truffle then reads as deep, not only as a smell.
- Maillard compounds. The roasted bones and the long reduction give a complex brown background. The truffle sits on top of it and does not disappear into fat.
M2
Add the truffle off the heat pan off the burner · residual heat only · 5 g of pieces kept for the plate
Truffle aroma compounds are small and volatile. On a hot pan they leave the sauce as vapour before the dish reaches the table.
The warm demi-glace has enough heat to release the aroma into the fat of the sauce. It does not have enough heat to drive the aroma off. The kept pieces on top of the plate release their aroma from the heat of the pasta, at the moment the dish is served.
M3
Cold-pan start for duck breast cold dry pan start · medium-low heat · 12–15 min skin side · 54 °C core → 57 °C after rest
Duck breast has a thick layer of fat under the skin. In a hot pan the skin browns before this fat melts. The result is burnt skin over a layer of soft fat.
A cold pan heats the skin slowly. The fat melts and runs out before the surface reaches browning temperature. The crosshatch cuts give the fat a path out and add surface.
Salt on the skin pulls water to the surface, and water slows crisping. Salt the meat side only.
M4
Pecorino, not parmesan
Parmesan adds more glutamate. The sauce already holds a lot of glutamate from the demi-glace, so parmesan makes the dish heavier and less clear.
Pecorino is sheep milk cheese. It is sharper and more acidic. The acidity gives a bright edge next to the truffle.