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Timbale of Meat

A baked meat dish formed in a mold, seasoned with pepper, salt, parsley, onion juice, eggs, stock, bread crumbs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Timbale of Meat

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.

Make the sauce

  1. Heat the butter in a saucepan over low heat, without browning.

  2. Add the bread crumbs and stir for one minute.

  3. Add the stock or milk and cook until the sauce thickens.

Combine the mixture

  1. Mix the seasonings with the chopped meat.

  2. Combine the sauce with the meat mixture and mix well.

  3. Pack the mixture into a well-buttered mold lined with buttered paper.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the mold in a pan of hot water and cook for one hour at 350°F (175°C).

  2. Turn the timbale onto a warm platter and serve with tomato sauce.

  3. For a decorative touch, bake in a border mold and fill the center with peas.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Chopped cold meat
Forms the main body and bulk of the timbale.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the butter and liquid, thickening the sauce and giving the mixture body.
Stock or milk
Provides moisture and forms the sauce that binds the meat together.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and helps the mold release cleanly when buttered.

The step that matters

Place the mold in a pan of hot water. A water bath spreads gentle, even heat around the mold. This slows the setting so the mixture firms evenly without drying out or cracking at the edges.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, pepper, parsley, egg, milk, bread, butter):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, pepper, parsley, egg, milk, bread, butter. 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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