Why it works: Egg and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Batter for Timbale Cases or Fontage Cups
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, mix the egg yolks, water, salt, and olive oil.
Gradually add flour until you achieve a thin batter consistency.
Let the batter stand for 2 to 3 hours.
Fry the timbales
Heat a kettle of fat until it smokes.
Dip a hot iron mold into the fat, then wipe off excess fat.
Coat the mold with batter and return it to the hot fat.
Cook until golden brown and drain on soft paper.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Olive + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,871 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + olivetop 31% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,340 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg yolks
- Bind the batter and add richness, helping the coating set around the mold.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that sets the thin batter into a crisp shell when fried.
- Olive oil
- Adds fat that tenderizes the batter and contributes to browning.
- Water
- Thins the batter to a coating consistency and adds moisture that turns to steam while frying.
The step that matters
Returning the coated mold to the hot fat. Batter that enters fat that is not hot enough absorbs oil and turns greasy and heavy instead of crisping. Keeping the fat smoking hot seals the surface quickly so the shell holds its shape and releases from the mold.
“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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