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Halibut Timbale

A baked dish of halibut mixed with breadcrumbs, milk, paprika, and egg whites, served with tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Halibut Timbale

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. Pound the fish in a mortar and strain it through a sieve.

  2. Make a paste with the bread crumbs and milk.

  3. Remove from heat and add the pulped fish, salt, and paprika.

  4. Slowly beat in the whipped egg whites.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter the molds and fill them with the mixture.

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

  3. 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 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

Halibut
Forms the main body of the timbale and gives it its delicate, flaky flavour.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and help bind the fish into a tender, sliceable custard-like set.
Egg whites
Whipped to add air and lift, then set on heating to give the timbale its light, firm structure.
Milk
Moistens the bread crumbs into a paste and keeps the mixture soft and creamy.

The step that matters

Slowly beat in the whipped egg whites. Folding or beating the whipped whites in slowly keeps the air bubbles intact. Deflated whites produce a dense timbale instead of a light, risen one.

“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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