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Brain Timbals

A steamed brain and bread casserole served with cream sauce, catsup, mushrooms, and oysters.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,787 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Brain Timbals

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak brains in salt water and strain.

  2. Soak bread in milk, then squeeze out the milk and mix with the brains.

Make the mixture

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs and mix with the bread and brains.

  2. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold into the mixture.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, and Worcestershire sauce.

Steam and serve

  1. Butter the tins and steam for 45 minutes.

  2. Serve with cream sauce, seasoned with catsup, mushrooms, and oysters.

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. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Bread + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + mushroomtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,231 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Brains
Form the main body of the timbales, giving them a soft, savoury texture.
Bread
Soaked in milk and squeezed, it adds body and helps bind the mixture.
Milk
Softens the bread so it blends smoothly into the brains and moistens the mixture.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and enrich it, helping it set when steamed.
Egg whites
Beaten until stiff and folded in, they lighten the mixture and help it rise and set.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites. Stiffly beaten whites trap air that lightens the mixture. Folding gently keeps that air in, so the timbales steam up light rather than dense.

“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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