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Ham Timbales

Ham Timbales are baked cakes of ham, eggs, and bread crumbs cooked in a water bath.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Ham Timbales

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the bread crumbs in the cream for 30 minutes.

  2. Add the beaten eggs, chopped ham, milk, mustard, and salt. Mix well.

  3. Grease the timbale moulds with butter or use one large mould.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into the moulds, optionally decorating with slices of hard-boiled eggs.

  2. Place the moulds in a pan of hot water and cook until the centers are firm.

  3. Serve with a white sauce.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

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

  5. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard so the timbales hold their shape when cooked.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the custard tender.
Milk
Thins the custard and adds moisture for a softer texture.
Bread crumbs
Soak up cream and help give the custard a tender body.
Ham
Provides the main savory flavor and salty, meaty taste.

The step that matters

Place the moulds in a pan of hot water and cook until the centers are firm.. The water bath cooks the egg custard gently and evenly, so it sets smooth instead of curdling or turning rubbery at the edges. Cook only until the centers are firm, since residual heat keeps setting the custard after it leaves the water.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, cream, egg, ham, milk, butter. 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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