Name: Imperial Timbales
Ingredients: Supreme sauce (well reduced); Tongue, cut into small julienne; Truffles, cut into small julienne; Mushrooms, cut into small julienne; Butter (for greasing molds); Cream forcemeat; Fresh butter (for thickening sauce)

Why it works: Truffle and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,900 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Imperial Timbales

Ingredients

Supreme sauce (well reduced)
Tongue, cut into small julienne
Truffles, cut into small julienne
Mushrooms, cut into small julienne
Butter (for greasing molds)
Cream forcemeat
Fresh butter (for thickening sauce)

Directions

Prepare the salpicon by mixing supreme sauce with tongue, truffles, and mushrooms.
Butter the molds and place a round slice of truffle at the bottom.
Arrange truffle bands around the sides of the mold.
Cover the insides of the molds with cream forcemeat.
Place a ball of salpicon in the center and fill the mold.
Poach the timbales and unmold them.
Serve with a veloute sauce reduced with onion puree and thickened with fresh butter.

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.

Truffle + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,900 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,787 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Truffle + buttertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,209 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).