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Timbale of Potatoes

A baked potato timbale with butter, eggs, sugar, and spices, topped with butter and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Timbale of Potatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Boil, drain, wash, and pass the potatoes through a fine sieve.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the potatoes with butter, whole eggs, egg yolks, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and sugar.

  3. Butter a 2-quart copper timbale mold and sprinkle it with fresh bread crumbs.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the potato mixture into the mold and add bits of butter on top.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

  3. Before serving, run a knife between the potatoes and the mold, then carefully turn it over to release.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Irish potatoes
Form the bulk of the timbale, giving it body and a soft, moist texture once mashed.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and carries flavour through the custard-like potato mixture.
Whole eggs
Bind the potato mixture and set during baking so the timbale holds its shape.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help the mixture set into a smooth, tender structure.

The step that matters

Turning the timbale out of the mold. Eggs set as the timbale bakes, so the mixture can stick to the mold's sides. Running a knife around the edge first loosens it, helping the shape hold when inverted.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, pepper, nutmeg, sugar, bread. 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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