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Chicken Timbale

A baked chicken mixture formed in molds, served with mushroom sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Chicken Timbale

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the mixture

  1. Grind the chicken meat twice until smooth.

  2. Combine the bread crumbs and milk in a saucepan, stirring over heat until a smooth paste forms.

  3. Remove the mixture from heat and let it cool.

  4. Gradually mix the cooled paste into the chicken.

  5. Press the mixture through a sieve.

  6. Add salt and pepper to the mixture.

  7. Add the beaten egg whites to the mixture.

Bake

  1. Grease timbale molds or deep muffin rings.

  2. Line the bottom of molds with oiled paper to prevent sticking.

  3. Fill the molds with the mixture.

  4. Place the filled molds in a baking pan filled with boiling water.

  5. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes.

Serve

  1. Make a plain white sauce with mushrooms.

  2. Pour the sauce over the timbales.

  3. Garnish with parsley.

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. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Meat + chickentop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,449 recipes

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

  3. Chicken + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  5. Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,258 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken meat
Provides the main body of the timbale once ground and pressed smooth.
Bread crumbs
Cooked into a paste that adds body and helps hold the mixture together.
Milk
Moistens the bread paste, keeping the finished timbale tender and moist.
Eggs
Egg whites set on baking, giving the timbale its firm, sliceable structure.

The step that matters

Sieving the mixture. Pressing the mixture through a sieve removes stringy fibres and lumps, so the timbale bakes up smooth and fine-textured rather than grainy.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, chicken, bread, milk, egg):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, chicken, bread, milk, egg. 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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