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Batter for Timbale Cases or Fontage Cups

A thin batter made from eggs, water, salt, flour, and oil used to coat iron molds for making small cups to hold foods.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Batter for Timbale Cases or Fontage Cups

Why it works: Flour and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Batter for Timbale Cases or Fontage Cups

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat the yolks of two eggs, half a cup of water, one-fourth teaspoonful of salt, one tablespoon of olive oil, and one cup of flour (or enough to make a thin batter). Let the batter stand for two or three hours before using.

Fry the cups

  1. Heat a kettle of fat until very hot or until it smokes.

  2. Place the iron mold in the hot fat until it is very hot.

  3. Remove the iron from the fat and quickly wipe a little of the fat from the mould.

  4. Dip the mould in the batter until it is coated.

  5. Place the mould again in the hot fat and cook until a delicate brown.

  6. Be careful that the iron does not touch the bottom of the kettle, as that will break them at the bottom.

  7. Drain the mould on soft paper.

Serve

  1. Use the moulds to hold creamed meats, mushrooms, vegetables, fish, or any food you wish to serve individually.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

533Calories
19 gProtein
6 gFat
96 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 4 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
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 Norton, Caroline Trask. 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the batter's structure so the cup holds its shape when fried.
Eggs
Add richness and help bind the batter so it sets firmly in hot fat.
Olive oil (in the method)
Adds fat that keeps the fried cup tender and helps it brown.

The step that matters

Keep the iron off the bottom of the kettle. Contact with the hot base of the kettle can crack the fried cups at the bottom. Heating the mold until very hot before dipping helps the batter set quickly and release cleanly.

“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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