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Timbals of Egg Plant, Mackay Stile

A baked eggplant timbal filled with braised mutton, herbs, breadcrumbs, and egg yolks, glazed with Madeira wine sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Timbals of Egg Plant, Mackay Stile

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 eggplant

  1. Peel and cut the eggplants lengthwise into six pieces each, then trim to make them uniform and season with salt.

  2. Cover and let sit for one hour, then drain and dry on a napkin.

  3. Melt butter in a flat saucepan, add the eggplant, and fry lightly. Drain on a napkin.

  4. Peel and slice two eggplants, flour them, and fry lightly in clarified butter on both sides. Drain on a napkin.

Make the filling

  1. Cut the braised mutton into small pieces and mix with cooked fine herbs, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, and egg yolks.

Assemble and bake

  1. Arrange the fried eggplant in a buttered timbal mold to cover the sides and bottom.

  2. Layer the stuffing and fried eggplant in the mold until filled. Cover with buttered paper.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

Serve

  1. Turn the mold onto a dish, remove carefully, and glaze with reduced Madeira wine sauce. Serve with brown Italian 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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Eggplant + peppertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,123 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Eggplant + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together371 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,488 recipes

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

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

Eggplants
Form the tender body of the timbal and absorb the flavor of the sauces and fats.
Braised mutton
Provides the rich, savory meat that forms the core of the filling.
Egg yolks
Bind the mutton and herb stuffing so it holds its shape when turned out.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help the stuffing hold together with a firmer texture.
Clarified butter
Fries the floured eggplant slices to a golden color without burning.

The step that matters

Turn the mold onto a dish. Eggplant and a bound stuffing are soft after baking, so the mold must be turned out gently and promptly, letting the set custard-like egg filling firm while warm, to keep the shape intact.

Swap the eggplant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, mutton, bread, pepper, egg, madeira wine):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Eggplantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, mutton, bread, pepper, egg, madeira wine. 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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