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Halibut Timbale

A baked fish dish made with halibut, bread crumbs, milk, egg whites, and seasonings, served in a timbale mold.

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 ↓

Halibut Timbale

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

  1. Shred the halibut into small pieces and pound to a fine paste.

  2. Soak the bread crumbs in hot milk for 5 minutes.

  3. Add the fish paste to the soaked bread crumbs.

  4. Season with salt, white pepper, and chopped parsley.

  5. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter a timbale mold and pour in the mixture.

  2. Place the mold in a pan of hot water.

  3. Bake for 30 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

  4. If it browns too much, cover with yellow paper.

  5. Turn out and serve with Hollandaise 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 + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. White pepper + parsleytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Halibut
Forms the main body of the timbale, giving it its delicate, tender texture when pounded fine.
Bread crumbs
Soak up the hot milk and give the mixture body so it holds together while baking.
Hot milk
Softens the bread crumbs and adds moisture, keeping the timbale tender as it cooks.
Egg whites
Set during baking to bind the mixture and give the timbale its light, firm structure.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the beaten egg whites. Folding rather than stirring keeps air trapped in the egg whites, which helps the timbale rise and stay light instead of dense.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, parsley, egg, 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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