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Dessert

Petites Timbales De Pigeon a LA Supreme

Small pigeon timbales made with pigeon, bacon, suet, butter, mushrooms, panada, sauce, eggs, truffles, ham, tongue, and puff paste.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Petites Timbales De Pigeon a LA Supreme

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the forcemeat

  1. Remove the meat from the pigeons and pound it with the suet and bacon in a mortar.

  2. Rub the mixture through a wire sieve and return it to the mortar.

  3. Add the butter, chopped mushrooms, panada, and Allemande or Veloute sauce.

  4. Season with pepper, salt, and aromatic spice.

  5. Work the mixture thoroughly.

  6. Gradually add the whole eggs and egg yolk.

Line and fill the molds

  1. Butter twelve small timbale molds.

  2. Line them thickly with the mixture.

  3. Place a dessert spoonful of salpicon (pigeon, ham, tongue, truffles, and mushrooms) in the center of each mold.

  4. Fill the molds with the forcemeat.

  5. Cover them.

Steam and serve

  1. Place the molds in a sauté pan.

  2. Add boiling water to steam.

  3. Cover with buttered paper.

  4. Bring to a boil.

  5. Steam in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 20 minutes.

  6. Turn them out.

  7. Dish in a circle.

  8. Garnish with a mushroom head and a piece of truffle.

  9. Pour some Supreme Sauce over and around them.

  10. Garnish with puff paste fleurons and sliced ox-tongue.

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. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Mushroom + truffletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,900 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  5. Butter + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Pigeon meat
Provides the main savoury flavour and firm, rich body to the forcemeat.
Eggs
Bind the forcemeat and set during steaming to hold the timbale shape.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the forcemeat moist and tender as it cooks.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, softening the texture of the forcemeat.
Panada
Adds starch that helps the forcemeat hold moisture and stay light.
Bacon
Adds fat and smoky, savoury flavour to the forcemeat.

The step that matters

Steam gently and keep the water from overheating the molds. Eggs in the forcemeat set as they heat. Steaming gently at a steady temperature lets them set evenly into a smooth, tender custard-like texture. Overly vigorous boiling can cause bubbles and a rough, cracked surface.

“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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