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Timbal Op Vegetable Balls, Milanaise Style

A layered dish of mutton and pork meatballs wrapped in cabbage leaves, baked with rice, Parmesan, and tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Timbal Op Vegetable Balls, Milanaise Style

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Prepare the cabbage leaves as directed in the previous recipe.

  2. Combine the mutton, fat pork, bread crumbs, onion, mushrooms, parsley, salt, pepper, and eggs in a bowl and mix the combined ingredients well.

  3. Roll the mixture into small balls, about the size of a walnut.

  4. Cover the balls with cabbage leaves.

Cook the balls

  1. Arrange the covered balls in a flat saucepan in 4 to 6 layers.

  2. Season each layer.

  3. Moisten the layers with broth to cover.

  4. Place a lid on the pan.

  5. Cook on the stove until the broth is reduced and the balls are thoroughly cooked.

Assemble and bake

  1. Prepare a firmer rice risotto, adding butter and grated Parmesan cheese.

  2. Butter a timbal mold and line it with cabbage leaves.

  3. Add a layer of rice around the sides and bottom of the mold, about ¼ inch thick.

  4. Place a layer of the meatballs in the mold.

  5. Sprinkle the meatballs with Parmesan cheese.

  6. Add reduced tomato sauce over the meatballs.

  7. Repeat layering until the mold is full.

  8. Finish with rice and cabbage leaves on top.

  9. Add thin slices of fat pork on top of the leaves.

  10. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

Unmold and serve

  1. Remove the mold.

  2. Take off the pork.

  3. Drain excess moisture.

  4. Invert the mold onto a serving dish.

  5. Pour reduced Madeira wine sauce over the timbal.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Pork + mushroomtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Bread + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Mutton fillet
Provides the main body and savory flavor of the balls.
Fresh fat pork
Adds moisture and richness so the filling stays tender while cooking.
Raw eggs
Bind the chopped meat and bread crumbs so the balls hold their shape.
Fresh bread crumbs
Absorb juices and help keep the filling soft and moist.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the risotto bind and brown lightly.
Grated parmesan cheese
Adds savory, salty flavor and helps the layers bind.

The step that matters

Unmold and serve. Drain excess moisture before inverting the mold, since surplus liquid can make the timbal soggy and cause it to fall apart when turned out.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pork, bread, mushroom, parsley, pepper, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pork, bread, mushroom, parsley, pepper, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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