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Timbale Turinoise

A molded casserole of rice and cucumber with ham, chicken, and mushroom topping, baked in butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and saffron match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 538 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Timbale Turinoise

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the components

  1. Soak cucumber shapes in salted water, then drain on a sieve.

  2. Wash the rice.

  3. Cook the rice in salted water with lemon juice until tender.

  4. Drain and mince half of the rice.

  5. Fill 8-10 small patty pans with the minced rice and let cool.

  6. Peel and finely mince the shallot.

  7. Fry the shallot in butter until golden.

  8. Add curry powder to the shallot and fry briefly.

  9. Finely chop the ham and chicken.

  10. Pound together with saffron and seasoning.

  11. Stir in cream and mix with the curry sauce.

  12. Heat and bind with egg yolks.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place cucumber shapes in a buttered sauté pan and fill with the puree.

  2. Top each with a mushroom head.

  3. Cover with buttered paper and cook in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 15 minutes.

Serve

  1. Unmold the rice shapes, trim neatly, and heat them up.

  2. Arrange the rice shapes in a circle on a dish and place the cooked cucumbers on top.

  3. Put the remaining heated rice in the center and serve.

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. Lemon + saffrontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together538 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Rice + saffrontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Cucumber + shallottop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together264 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Cucumber + ricetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together734 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Rice + chickentop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Forms the molded shell and holds its shape when unmolded.
Egg yolks
Bind the ham and chicken mixture so it sets firm when heated.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the puree, keeping it soft and smooth.
Ham and chicken
Provide the savory meat filling that forms the main body of the puree.
Cucumber shapes
Act as the edible outer wrapper holding the filling during baking.

The step that matters

Binding the puree with egg yolks. Heating the yolks gently lets them thicken the mixture; if it gets too hot, the yolks scramble and the puree turns grainy instead of smooth and set.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, lemon, shallot, butter, ham, chicken, saffron):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, lemon, shallot, butter, ham, chicken, saffron. 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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