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Timbal of Ohigken

A savory chicken soufflé baked in cups.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Timbal of Ohigken

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the mixture

  1. In a mortar, combine the ground chicken, cream, salt, black pepper, red pepper, and nutmeg.

  2. Pass the mixture through a colander or sieve.

  3. Gently fold in the whipped egg whites until the mixture is the consistency of a soufflé.

Bake and serve

  1. Grease timbal cups with butter and fill them with the mixture.

  2. Place the cups in a pan of hot water and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.

  3. Serve with a 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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken breasts
Provide the main protein, which sets into a tender, delicate custard-like body when cooked.
Egg whites
Whipped stiff, they trap air and give the timbal its light, soufflé-like rise and texture.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the chicken mixture soft and smooth.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the whipped egg whites. Folding rather than stirring keeps the air bubbles in the whipped whites intact. Those bubbles expand in the oven and give the timbal its light texture, so overmixing will leave it dense.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Garlicfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, cream, pepper, 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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