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Egg Timbales with Tomato Sauce

Egg timbales are baked egg cups served with a tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Egg Timbales with Tomato Sauce

Oven, in the book's wordsA medium oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a medium oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the custard

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Beat the eggs slightly in a bowl using a whisk.

  3. Gradually add the milk to the eggs, then season with salt, pepper, and onion juice.

  4. Pour the mixture into greased cups and place them in a baking dish with water.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes until set.

  2. For the sauce, cook the tomatoes with butter, flour, salt, pepper, bay leaf, and onion until thickened.

  3. Serve the timbales hot with the tomato sauce poured around them.

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

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

  2. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Eggs
Beaten eggs set when baked, giving the timbales their firm, sliceable structure.
Milk
Dilutes the eggs and keeps the baked custard tender and moist rather than rubbery.
Tomatoes
Form the base of the sauce, adding acidity and body as they cook down.
Flour
Thickens the tomato sauce so it coats the timbales instead of running off.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the tomato sauce, smoothing its flavour.

The step that matters

Baking the custard in water. Egg custard turns grainy and watery if baked too hot. Setting the cups in a water bath moderates the heat so the proteins coagulate gently and the texture stays smooth.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, pepper, tomato, flour, 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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