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Fish Timbale

A baked fish dish made from halibut pulp mixed with panada, butter, eggs, cream, and spices, served with tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Landmarks Club · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fish Timbale

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the panada

  1. Soak bread crumbs, express the water, and cook the bread in a saucepan with milk or stock until a paste leaves the side of the pan.

Make the mixture

  1. Pound one and a half pounds of uncooked halibut in a mortar until pulp, then strain through a puree sieve to obtain one cup of pulp.

  2. Add one-half cupful of panada, one-quarter cup of butter, yolks of three eggs, salt, pepper, and a dash of nutmeg to the pulp; stir well together and pass through a sieve again.

  3. Place the mixture on ice and slowly add one cup of cream.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter timbale molds and fill them three-quarters full; place them in a baking pan with two cups of hot water and bake for twenty minutes.

  2. Serve with tomato sauce.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

249Calories
7 gProtein
23 gFat
4 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Landmarks Club. 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. See the original page.

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 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. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Halibut (in the method)
Forms the main body of the timbale, giving it its delicate, pale fish flavour.
Eggs
Egg yolks bind the mixture and help it set firm when baked.
Cream
Adds moisture and a softer, richer texture to the fish mixture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing to a smooth, tender texture.
Panada
Bread-based paste that adds body and helps hold the fish mixture together.

The step that matters

Keeping the mixture cold while adding the cream. Cold mixture lets the cream blend in without the fat separating or the mixture warming and loosening. Keeping it chilled helps the timbale set smoothly rather than curdling or turning grainy when baked.

“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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