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Timbale of Peas

A small molded dish of peas mixed with egg yolks, butter, salt, and paprika.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Peas and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,887 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Timbale of Peas

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix the strained peas, salt, egg yolks, paprika, and melted butter together.

  2. Pour the mixture into small timbale molds.

  3. Place the molds in a pan of water and bake in the oven until the mixture is solid.

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. Peas + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,887 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Peas + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Strained peas
Provide the bulk and body that the timbale is built from.
Egg yolks
Set when heated, binding the mixture into a solid, custard-like structure.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more tender texture.

The step that matters

Baking in a water bath until solid. The molds sit in a pan of water, which gives gentle, even heat. Egg-based mixtures turn grainy or watery when overheated, so the water bath helps the timbale set smoothly without curdling.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Pecansfits better
  2. Almondfits better
  3. Filbertfits about as well
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, 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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