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Ham Timbales

Ham Timbales are baked custard-like cakes made with bread crumbs, cream, eggs, ham, milk, mustard, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Ham Timbales

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the custard

  1. Soak the bread crumbs in the cream for 30 minutes.

  2. Add the eggs, ham, milk, mustard, and salt; mix well.

Bake and serve

  1. Grease timbale moulds with butter and fill them with the mixture.

  2. Place the moulds in a pan of hot water and cook until the centers are firm.

  3. Serve with a 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.

  1. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the mixture into a firm, sliceable custard as they cook.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, giving the timbales a smooth, tender texture.
Milk
Thins the custard and adds moisture for a softer, more delicate set.
Bread crumbs
Soak up cream and help bind the mixture for a tender structure.
Ham
Provides the main savory flavor and firm bits throughout the custard.

The step that matters

Cook in a water bath until the centers are firm. Egg custards turn grainy or watery if cooked too hot or too long. Gentle, indirect heat from the hot water pan lets the eggs set evenly and stay smooth.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, cream, egg, ham, milk, butter):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, cream, egg, ham, milk, butter. 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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