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Timbale D’ApINARD, Pur&E De J Ambon

A timbale of spinach and ham purée, made with quenelle meat, whipped cream, and a ham glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Spinach and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 503 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Timbale D’ApINARD, Pur&E De J Ambon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Prepare the quenelle meat of chicken or veal as per recipe No. 174.

  2. Mix the quenelle meat with the purée of spinach until well combined.

  3. Add the whipped cream and mix until smooth.

Fill the molds

  1. Grease some dariole molds with butter.

  2. Dip your finger in cold water and press a hole in the center of each dariole.

  3. Beat cooked ham with half-glaze.

  4. Strain the mixture.

  5. Fill the hole with the ham purée.

  6. Cover the ham filling with a layer of the quenelle mixture.

Poach and serve

  1. Poach the dariole molds as you would other quenelles.

  2. Serve the timbales with a half-glaze flavored with ham.

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. Spinach + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together503 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Meat + hamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Meat + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together855 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Ham + mustardtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together747 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Quenelle meat of chicken or veal
Forms the delicate, set structure of the timbale once poached.
Purée of spinach
Adds moisture, green color and a vegetable flavor to the mixture.
Whipped cream
Lightens the mixture and keeps the finished texture tender and moist.
Cooked lean ham
Provides the savory, meaty flavor of the ham filling.

The step that matters

Poach the dariole molds as you would other quenelles. Poaching in gently simmering liquid, below a boil, sets the mixture without making it rubbery or porous. A boil can split or toughen delicate quenelle mixtures, so the heat must stay gentle throughout.

Swap the spinach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, cream, butter, ham, mustard):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Spinachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, cream, butter, ham, mustard. 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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