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Lobster Timbals

A baked fish dish with a bread and cream base, filled with lobster and served with lobster sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and lobster are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,050 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Lobster Timbals

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the bread and fish

  1. Soak the stale bread in water until soft, then squeeze out excess water.

  2. Cook the bread with 1 teaspoon of butter, beating until it reaches a rubbery consistency. Cool the bread mixture.

  3. Pass the halibut or cod through a meat chopper. Pound the fish in a mortar.

  4. Gradually add ⅓ cup of the prepared bread, 1 egg, 1 egg yolk, and 4 tablespoons of cream. Beat the mixture well.

Make the lobster filling

  1. Sauté the chopped onion in 3 tablespoons of butter until very fine.

  2. Add 2 tablespoons of flour, ½ cup of cream, 2 egg yolks, salt, and pepper. Cook the mixture until thickened.

  3. Stir in 1 tablespoon of sherry wine and ⅔ cup of chopped lobster. Let the lobster mixture cool.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter timbal molds. Spread the bread mixture on the sides and bottom of the molds.

  2. Fill the center of the timbals with the lobster filling. Cover with the fish mixture.

  3. Cook in a 400°F (200°C) oven in a pan of hot water. Serve with lobster 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. Cream + lobstertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

Stale bread
Soaked and cooked bread binds the fish and gives the shell a firm, tender structure.
Halibut or cod
Forms the main body of the timbal, setting into a firm, delicate texture when baked.
Egg and egg yolks
Bind the fish mixture and set on heating, holding the timbal together.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the fish mixture tender rather than dry.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor, and helps the onion soften and the sauce base cook smoothly.
Flour
Thickens the lobster filling into a cohesive mixture when cooked with cream and yolks.

The step that matters

Cook the bread until rubbery and cool it fully. Cooking the bread drives off moisture and gives it a firm texture that binds the fish. Cooling before mixing prevents the eggs from scrambling and the mixture from loosening.

“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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