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Chicken Timbales

A baked chicken dish formed in cups, made with bread crumbs, milk, butter, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Chicken Timbales

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.

Make the base

  1. Boil the bread crumbs and milk together until thickened.

  2. Gradually add the chicken, butter, and seasoning.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

  4. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites just before serving.

Fill and bake

  1. Butter some timbale cups or ordinary baking cups.

  2. Pour the mixture into the cups, filling them about two-thirds full.

  3. Place the cups in a pan of boiling water.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 15 to 20 minutes.

Serve

  1. Turn out onto a platter and serve with cream 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. Walnut + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Chicken + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Forms the main body of the timbales and provides the savoury, meaty flavour.
Bread crumbs
Soaked in milk and thickened by boiling, they give the mixture body and a soft, tender structure.
Milk
Cooks with the bread crumbs to form a thick base and keeps the timbales moist.
Eggs
Stiffly beaten whites are folded in to lighten the mixture and help it set with structure when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing smoothness and flavour to the mixture.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stiffly beaten whites trap air that gives the timbales lift. Folding gently, just before baking, preserves that air; stirring hard would deflate the foam and leave a dense result.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Peanutfits about as well
  2. Peasfits about as well
  3. Lima beansfits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, meat, bread, milk, butter, pepper, egg. 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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