Skip to main content
Main

Beef Timbole

A baked minced beef dish with bacon, onion, flour, and tomato ketchup, served with gherkin sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Ketchup and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Beef Timbole

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.

Brown the meat

  1. Heat the clarified beef dripping in a stewpan, then add the bacon, onion, and beefsteak.

  2. Fry until browned.

  3. Remove the meat and let it cool.

Make the sauce

  1. Mix flour with the fat in the pan.

  2. Gradually stir in hot water until smooth and thick.

  3. Add browning, tomato ketchup, salt, and pepper.

  4. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Fill and bake

  1. Mince the steak and strain the sauce into it.

  2. Add the beaten egg.

  3. Grease dariole moulds with dripping and fill with the mince.

  4. Cover with greased paper.

  5. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 30 minutes.

Serve

  1. Once firm, turn out of the moulds and serve with gherkin sauce.

  2. Simmer minced gherkins in the sauce for 10 minutes before serving.

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. Ketchup + saucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

  5. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beefsteak
Provides the meaty bulk and savoury flavour of the mince.
Flour
Thickens the drippings and stock into a smooth, sliceable sauce.
Egg
Sets when baked, binding the mince so it holds its shape when turned out.

The step that matters

Bake until just firm. Egg proteins set as they heat, so baking gently until just firm keeps the mince tender. Overbaking makes the egg tight and rubbery and dries the mince.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, flour, tomato, ketchup, pepper, egg, sauce):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, flour, tomato, ketchup, pepper, egg, 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipes