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Timbale of Salmon

A baked salmon mixture served in cups, topped with a butter‑flour sauce flavored with lime.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lime match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,491 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Timbale of Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Make the timbale mixture

  1. Combine salmon, thick cream, and egg whites in a bowl, beating continuously.

  2. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  3. Fill small cups or egg cups with the mixture.

  4. Place the filled cups in a dish of hot water.

Bake and make the sauce

  1. Bake for 20 minutes.

  2. Stir together the flour and butter in a saucepan to make the butter sauce.

  3. Gradually add the boiling water, stirring constantly until thickened.

  4. Flavor the sauce with lime juice.

Serve

  1. Serve the timbales on plates.

  2. Pour the butter sauce over the timbales.

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.

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. Pepper + limetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,491 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Salmon + creamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,401 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Salmon
Forms the body of the timbale and gives it its main flavor.
Egg whites
Set when heated, giving the timbales structure and a light, firm texture.
Thick cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the mixture tender as it sets.
Flour
Thickens the butter sauce as it cooks with the boiling water.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the sauce, carrying its flavor.

The step that matters

Gradually add the boiling water while stirring constantly. Adding liquid slowly while stirring keeps the flour evenly dispersed, so the sauce thickens smoothly instead of forming lumps.

Swap the lime

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, cream, egg, pepper, butter, sauce, flour):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Limethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, cream, egg, pepper, butter, sauce, flour. 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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