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Halibut Timbales I

Halibut timbales are baked halibut pieces folded with cream, egg whites, and seasonings, served with béchamel or lobster sauce.

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: Lemon and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 44,316 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Halibut Timbales I

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Cook halibut in boiling salted water.

  2. Drain and rub through a sieve.

  3. Season with salt, cayenne, and lemon juice.

  4. Add cream beaten until stiff.

  5. Fold in beaten egg whites.

Bake

  1. Turn mixture into small, slightly buttered moulds.

  2. Put moulds in a pan.

  3. Half surround with hot water.

  4. Cover with buttered paper.

  5. Bake twenty minutes in a moderate oven.

Serve

  1. Remove from moulds.

  2. Arrange on a serving dish.

  3. Pour around béchamel sauce or lobster sauce II.

  4. Garnish with parsley.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

287Calories
34 gProtein
14 gFat
6 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Halibut100g cooked140
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
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. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  2. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Cream + lemontop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,640 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Lemon and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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

Halibut
Forms the main body of the timbales, providing the flavour and the set base.
Eggs whites
Beaten in at the end to lighten the mixture and help it rise and set in the oven.
Thick cream
Beaten until stiff and folded in, adding richness and a moist, tender texture.

The step that matters

Fold in beaten egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air beaten into the whites; deflating the mixture makes the timbales dense rather than light when baked.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raspberryfits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, 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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