Name: Timbale of White Meat
Ingredients: 1 pound cooked chicken, minced; 6 ounces pipe ham, minced; 6 button mushrooms, minced; ¼ pound cooked bread crumbs; ¼ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon pepper; 3 eggs; 1 tablespoon cream; 1 pound macaroni

Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Timbale of White Meat

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

Boil the macaroni in salted water until soft, then drain.
In a bowl, combine minced chicken, ham, mushrooms, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, eggs, and cream.

Assemble

Line a mold with pieces of macaroni, then fill with the chicken mixture.
Cover with more macaroni and press down firmly.

Steam and serve

Steam in the oven at 400°F (200°C) for 1 hour.
Turn out onto a plate and serve with 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.

Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,172 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).
Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,536 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,536 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked chicken: Forms the main body of the timbale and provides its savoury protein structure.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and set on heating, holding the timbale together when turned out.
Macaroni: Lines and covers the mold, giving the timbale a firm outer shell and shape.
Cooked bread crumbs: Absorb moisture and add body, helping the filling stay tender rather than watery.
Pipe ham: Adds salty, savoury flavour throughout the filling.

The step that matters

Press the macaroni and filling down firmly. Firm pressing removes air pockets and packs the mixture tightly, so the timbale holds its shape when turned out and cooks evenly through the set egg mixture.

“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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Timbale of White Meat