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Turkey Timbales

Turkey timbales are baked turkey mixtures with cream, eggs, mushrooms, and spices, served hot with mushroom sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Turkey Timbales

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Chop and pound the turkey to a paste.

  2. Gradually add the thin cream, mixing well.

  3. Add the 3 egg whites one at a time, beating well after each addition.

  4. Stir in the salt, cayenne pepper, chopped mushrooms, onion juice, and Worcestershire sauce.

  5. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

Bake and serve

  1. Grease timbale cups with butter and fill them half full with the mixture.

  2. Place the cups in a pan of hot water and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 20 minutes.

  3. Serve hot with mushroom sauce.

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. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

  5. Turkey + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together205 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

What each ingredient does

Boneless turkey
Provides the main protein that sets into a firm, sliceable body when cooked.
Egg whites
Coagulate on heating to give the timbale its light, set structure.
Thin cream
Adds moisture and softness, keeping the mixture tender rather than dry.

The step that matters

Place the cups in a pan of hot water. The water bath surrounds the cups with gentle, even heat, so the egg proteins set slowly without curdling or overbaking the edges. Skipping it can leave the timbales rubbery or cracked.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, cream, egg, pepper, mushroom, sauce, butter):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, cream, egg, pepper, mushroom, sauce, butter. 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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