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Timbales of Veal

A baked dish of chopped veal or lamb mixed with butter, cream, egg whites, and seasonings, served in custard cups.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Timbales of Veal

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. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, combine the chopped meat with melted butter and cream or milk.

  3. Pound the mixture well with a potato masher.

  4. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites and season with salt and pepper.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill custard cups two-thirds full with the mixture.

  2. Place the cups in a pan surrounded by hot water and bake for 20 minutes.

  3. Once done, turn out onto a heated dish and serve with tomato 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Veal + parsleytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,766 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

Cooked veal or lamb
Provides the main body of the timbales, held together by the egg.
Egg whites
Set when heated, giving the timbales their firm, light structure.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture, keeping the mixture tender rather than dry as it bakes.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender texture.

The step that matters

Baking in a water bath. Surrounding the cups with hot water moderates the heat so the egg whites set gently. Baking too hot can make the timbales curdle, puff and dry out.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter, cream, egg, pepper):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Sagefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, cream, egg, pepper. 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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