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Pea Timbales

A savoury baked custard of pea pulp, eggs and butter, served with white sauce and whole peas.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pea Timbales

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Mix the pea pulp, beaten eggs, melted butter, salt, pepper, cayenne, and onion juice in a bowl.

  2. Pour the mixture into buttered molds and place them in a pan of hot water.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover the molds with buttered paper and bake at 400°F (200°C) until firm.

  2. Serve with white sauce mixed with whole peas.

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

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

  2. Onion + peastop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,460 recipes

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

  3. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Pepper + peastop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,331 recipes

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

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Pea pulp
Forms the body of the timbale and gives it its green flavour and colour.
Eggs
Set when baked, giving the timbale its firm, sliceable structure.
Melted butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the set custard.
White sauce
Adds moisture and creaminess as the accompanying sauce for the served timbales.

The step that matters

Bake in a water bath. Placing the molds in a pan of hot water moderates the heat around the custard. Egg proteins set gently, which keeps the timbales smooth rather than curdled, spongy, or cracked.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Sesamefits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Black-eyed peafits about as well
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, pepper, onion, sauce. 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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