Name: Chicken Timbales II
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons butter; ¼ cup stale bread crumbs; ⅔ cup milk; 1 cup chopped cooked chicken; ½ tablespoon chopped parsley; 2 eggs; Salt; Pepper

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Timbales II

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

Melt butter, add bread crumbs and milk, and cook five minutes, stirring constantly.
Add chicken, parsley, and eggs slightly beaten.
Season with salt and pepper.

Bake and serve

Turn into buttered individual moulds, having moulds two-thirds full set in pan of hot water, cover with buttered paper, and bake twenty minutes.
Serve with béchamel sauce.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

956Calories

59 gProtein

30 gFat

109 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 8 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Milk + chickentop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,389 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Bind the chicken mixture and set into a firm, tender custard when baked.
Bread crumbs: Absorb the milk and give the mixture body and a soft, light structure.
Milk: Moistens the crumbs and adds moisture that keeps the timbales tender.
Chicken: Provides the main protein and substance of the timbale.

The step that matters

Bake in a water bath. Setting the moulds in hot water keeps the oven heat gentle, so the eggs set evenly without curdling or becoming rubbery.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, bread, milk, chicken, egg, pepper):

Parsleythe original
Nutmegfits about as well
Thymefits about as well
Cinnamonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, bread, milk, chicken, egg, pepper. 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.