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Mushroom and Chicken Timbales

A baked dish of sautéed mushrooms and chicken mixed with white sauce, breadcrumbs, and eggs, served with brown sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and chicken are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Mushroom and Chicken Timbales

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the filling

  1. Saute the mushrooms and chicken in butter with the onion until browned.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix the White Sauce No. 229, bread crumbs, red pepper, salt, and egg yolks.

  3. Combine the sautéed mixture with the egg mixture and fill molds.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 15 minutes.

  2. Serve with Brown Sauce No. 230 and additional mushrooms and truffle.

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. Mushroom + chickentop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks bind the filling and, once heated, set it into a firm, sliceable custard-like texture.
Egg whites
Whipped whites trap air, lightening the timbale and helping it rise and hold a soft structure.
Mushrooms
Mushrooms add earthy flavour and moisture to the filling as they brown in butter.
Chicken meat
Chicken provides the main protein, giving the filling body and savoury flavour.
Bread crumbs
Soft crumbs absorb liquid from the white sauce, helping the mixture hold together and stay tender.
Butter
Butter browns the mushrooms and chicken, adding richness and nutty aroma to the filling.

The step that matters

Folding the egg whites. The whites are not in the step list, so the record gives no method for them; the cook should add them gently to keep the air that lightens the timbale.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, chicken, meat, butter, sauce, bread, pepper. 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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