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Cheese Timbales

A baked cheese custard in molds made with butter, flour, milk, cream, stock, spices, cheese, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cheese Timbales

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the cheese base

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.

  2. Stir in the flour until blended.

  3. Add the milk, cream, and white stock; stir until it bubbles.

  4. Season with cayenne or paprika and salt.

  5. Stir in the cheese until melted.

Bake and serve

  1. Gradually add the beaten egg yolks and whole eggs, mixing well.

  2. Pour the mixture into buttered timbale molds.

  3. Place the molds in a pan surrounded by boiling water.

  4. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until firm, ensuring the water does not boil.

  5. Serve immediately with cream or 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  4. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Eggs
Beaten eggs set the custard into a firm, sliceable structure when baked.
Cheese
Melted into the base, it adds rich flavour and fat that softens the set custard.
Flour
Cooked with butter, it thickens the milk and cream into a smooth base.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the eggs set into a tender custard.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the timbale a smoother, softer texture.

The step that matters

Keep the water bath from boiling. Gentle, indirect heat lets the egg custard set evenly. Boiling water can overheat the edges, causing bubbles, cracks, or a rubbery, curdled texture.

“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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