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Swedish Timbales

A fried batter shaped in a timbale iron, served with fillings like creamed oysters, chicken, sweetbreads, or mushrooms.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Fannie Merritt Farmer · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Swedish Timbales

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Mix dry ingredients, then add milk gradually.

  2. Add beaten egg and olive oil.

Heat the iron and fat

  1. Heat fat until nearly hot enough to fry uncooked mixtures.

  2. Put iron into hot fat, having fat deep enough to more than cover it, and let stand until heated.

  3. Take iron from fat.

  4. Shake what fat may drip from it.

Fry the timbales

  1. Lower iron in batter to three-fourths its depth.

  2. Raise iron from batter.

  3. Immerse iron in hot fat.

  4. If batter does not cling to iron, or drops from iron as soon as immersed in fat, it is either too hot or not sufficiently heated.

  5. Turn timbale batter into a cup.

  6. Lower hot iron into cup, taking care that batter covers iron to only three-fourths its depth.

  7. When immersed in fat, mixture will rise to top of iron, and when crisp and brown may be easily slipped off.

  8. If too much batter is used, cut around with a sharp knife close to top of iron to remove timbale.

  9. If the cases are soft rather than crisp, batter is too thick and must be diluted with milk.

Finish and serve

  1. Shape using a hot timbale iron.

  2. Fry in deep fat until crisp and brown.

  3. Take from iron.

  4. Invert on brown paper to drain.

  5. Fill cases with creamed oysters, chicken, sweetbreads, or chicken and sweetbreads in combination with mushrooms.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

850Calories
27 gProtein
28 gFat
120 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By Fannie Merritt Farmer. 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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Milk + olivetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,828 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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 structure of the batter that sets into a crisp shell when fried.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps it set firmly during frying.
Milk
Hydrates the flour to give the batter a pourable, cling-friendly consistency.
Olive oil
Adds fat that contributes tenderness and helps the shell brown.

The step that matters

Keep the batter thin and the fat at the right heat. If the batter is too thick it fries soft instead of crisp, and if the fat is too hot or not hot enough the batter will not cling to the iron or set properly. Dilute with milk when the batter is too thick.

“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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