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Timbale of Pheasants with Truffles

A stuffed pheasant timbale with truffles, foie gras, and pork, baked and served with brown sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pheasant and pork work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 240 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Timbale of Pheasants with Truffles

Oven, in the book's wordsA slack oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slack oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the forcemeat

  1. Remove the meat from the breast of the pheasants.

  2. Chop the legs, fillet, and carcass parings.

  3. Mix the chopped meat with fat pork, truffles, and foie gras.

  4. Pound the mixture.

  5. Sieve the mixture.

  6. Cut the remaining breast meat into large squares.

  7. Mix with chopped foie gras.

  8. Season and add Madeira wine.

  9. Chill for 2 hours.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a dome-shaped mold.

  2. Line it with cold pie paste.

  3. Fill with the forcemeat and the chilled mixture.

  4. Cover with a thick layer of forcemeat and slices of fat pork.

  5. Seal the mold with pie paste.

  6. Make a small opening in the center.

  7. Place the mold on a baking sheet.

  8. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for about 1.5 hours.

  9. After baking, let it rest for 15 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Pour brown sauce into the opening.

  2. Cool for 24 hours before unmolding.

  3. Invert the timbale onto a plate.

  4. Remove the mold.

  5. Slice from the bottom to the top.

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. Pheasant + porktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together240 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Pork + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethylphenol (must).

  3. Truffle + madeira winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together195 recipes
  4. Pheasant + truffletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together133 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  5. Pheasant + saucetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together290 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

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

What each ingredient does

Pheasants
Provide the main meat, giving the timbale its body and savoury flavour.
Fat pork
Adds fat and moisture, keeping the forcemeat tender and juicy as it bakes.
Truffles
Contribute an intense earthy aroma that perfumes the whole forcemeat.
Foie gras
Adds richness and a smooth, buttery texture to the forcemeat.
Madeira wine
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth to the forcemeat.
Cold pie paste
Forms a sealed crust that holds the shape and encloses the moisture during baking.

The step that matters

Chill the mixture before assembling. Chilling firms the fat so the forcemeat holds its shape when sliced and does not smear or weep while the mold is filled and sealed.

“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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