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Cheesb Timbale

A baked custard-like dish made with cream, butter, flour, Parmesan, eggs, and seasonings, served in molds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Cheesb Timbale

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the base

  1. Mix the cream, butter, and flour in a saucepan over medium heat until it boils.

  2. Stir in the grated Parmesan cheese and strain the mixture through a puree sieve. Set aside to cool.

  3. Once cool, stir in the beaten eggs, salt, and white pepper.

Bake and serve

  1. Grease small timbale molds and decorate the insides with truffles.

  2. Pour the mixture into the molds, place them in a water bath, and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 10 minutes.

  3. Serve with cheese 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. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Butter + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Parmesan cheese + truffletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together140 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Cream
Provides liquid and richness, giving the custard a soft, creamy texture when set.
Eggs
Set the custard into a firm but tender structure as they cook.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory, salty flavor and helps the custard set with a rich texture.
Flour
Thickens the cream mixture so it holds together before the eggs are added.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before adding the eggs. Beaten eggs added to a very hot base can scramble or cook unevenly, which leaves a grainy rather than smooth timbale. Cooling first keeps the custard silky.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, butter, flour, parmesan cheese, egg, truffle):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, butter, flour, parmesan cheese, egg, truffle. 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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