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Cold Veal and Ham Timbales

A cold timbale of veal, ham, and eggs baked in a paste shell.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Margaret Brown · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cold Veal and Ham Timbales

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the paste

  1. Make the timbale paste with 1 pound of corned bacon, 2 pounds of leg veal, 6 hard‑boiled eggs, 1 teaspoon celery salt, 1 teaspoon marjoram, 3 sprigs parsley, white pepper, and salt to taste.

  2. Line the timbale mould with the paste, placing it on a greased baking pan.

Layer and bake

  1. Cut the ham and veal into scallops and slice the eggs.

  2. Layer the scalloped ham and veal and sliced eggs alternately with the seasonings.

  3. Fill the mould with water, wet the exposed edges of the paste cover, ornament the edges, and bake in a moderate oven for 2 hours.

Serve

  1. When cooled, open the mould and serve as desired.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

134Calories
10 gProtein
9 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
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Bacon1 slice cooked (8g)43
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Vealnot 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 Margaret Brown. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + white peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Celery + white peppertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together853 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Veal + celerytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,336 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

Leg veal
Forms the bulk of the meat filling and gives the timbale its firm, sliceable texture.
Corned bacon
Adds salty, savory flavor and fat that keeps the meat filling moist.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add body and a mild, rich texture when sliced through the layers.

The step that matters

Baking the timbale in water. Filling the mould with water creates a moist, gentle heat around the paste, which helps the meat cook evenly without drying out. Baking for the full time at a moderate oven heat ensures the centre is fully cooked before cooling and slicing.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, celery, parsley, egg):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, celery, parsley, egg. 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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