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Hungarian Timbale

A baked dish of cooked beef, onion, spices, tomato sauce, bread crumbs, and rice layered in a buttered dish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Hungarian Timbale

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 filling

  1. Chop the cooked beef in a meat chopper.

  2. Add grated onion, celery salt, and pepper to the beef.

  3. Mix in enough tomato sauce to moisten the beef, then add bread crumbs.

Prepare the rice

  1. Season boiled rice with salt and butter.

  2. Mix the seasoned rice with the beaten egg white.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a buttered baking dish with 1½ cups of the rice.

  2. Fill the dish with the meat mixture.

  3. Cover the dish with the remaining rice.

  4. Place the baking dish in a pan of hot water.

  5. Bake for 30 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

  6. Serve with tomato 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. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked beef
Forms the main body of the timbale and gives it a meaty filling.
Boiled rice
Forms the outer layers that hold the timbale together and give it bulk.
Egg white
Sets when baked, binding the rice so it holds its shape when served.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture from the meat mixture, helping it hold together and stay tender.
Tomato sauce
Moistens the beef so the filling is not dry, and adds acidity and flavor.

The step that matters

Mixing the egg white into the rice. Egg white coagulates when heated, so it binds the rice into a firm shell. Adding it to rice that is still very hot can cook it unevenly and make it harder to spread evenly in the dish.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, celery, pepper, tomato, sauce, bread, rice):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, celery, pepper, tomato, sauce, bread, rice. 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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