Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓
Chicken Timbale
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mixture
Chop the meat from the breast and second joints of the chicken using a meat chopper.
Add the chopped chicken to a bowl.
Beat in the eggs one at a time until well combined.
Stir in the salt, pepper, celery salt, and mushrooms if using.
Add the heavy cream and mix well.
Mold and cook
Grease a mold with butter.
Decorate the mold with slices of hard-boiled egg or truffles.
Pour the mixture into the mold.
Cover the mixture with buttered paper.
Cook the timbale in a pan of hot water for 30 to 45 minutes until the center feels firm.
Do not let the water boil.
Make the sauce and serve
Simmer the chicken bones in cold water, seasoned, for three hours to make stock.
Reduce the stock to one cup.
Strain the stock.
Mix the strained stock with ½ cup of cream thickened with 2 tablespoons of flour and 2 tablespoons of melted butter.
Season the reduction to taste.
Pour the reduction around the timbale when serving.
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.
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Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,172 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).
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Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Celery + mushroomtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,006 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Bind the chicken and set into a firm, sliceable custard when heated.
- Chicken meat
- Provides the main body and flavor of the timbale.
- Heavy cream
- Adds moisture and richness, keeping the custard tender as it sets.
- Flour (in the method)
- Thickens the cream in the sauce so it coats the timbale.
The step that matters
Cook in gently simmering water, not boiling. Eggs custards set smoothly at moderate heat. Boiling water cooks the outside too fast, causing a rough, curdled or spongy texture and an overcooked center.
Swap the celery
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, meat, egg, pepper, mushroom, cream, butter):
- Thymefits better
- Garlicfits about as well
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Celerythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, meat, egg, pepper, mushroom, cream, 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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