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Lobster or Salmon Timbales

A baked fish timbale made with canned salmon or lobster, cream, almonds, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Lobster or Salmon 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.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Remove salmon or lobster from the can and shred it.

  2. Pound the fish until smooth and season with salt and paprika.

  3. Stir in chopped almonds and whipped cream.

  4. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill buttered timbale molds with the mixture.

  2. Place molds in a pan filled with boiling water.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 20 minutes.

  4. Remove from molds and serve on a platter with Hollandaise or Tartare 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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Salmon + creamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,401 recipes

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

  4. Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Salmon + eggtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,485 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon or lobster
Forms the main body of the timbale and provides its flavour.
Heavy cream
Adds moisture and a light, tender texture when whipped and folded in.
Egg whites
Whipped stiff, they lighten the mixture and help it set into a firm, airy custard.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Beaten egg whites trap air that gives the timbale its lift. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring vigorously deflates the foam and leaves a dense, heavy result.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Peasfits about as well
  3. Almondthe original
  4. Walnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, cream, 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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