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Timbales of Whiting

A steamed fish dish of whiting mixed with butter, flour, milk, eggs, and lemon, served in greased molds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Timbales of Whiting

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Remove the fish from the bones and pass it through a wire sieve.

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the flour and milk.

  3. Bring to a boil.

Mix and fill the molds

  1. Stir in the fish, eggs, salt, pepper, and lemon juice, then mix thoroughly.

  2. Add a little cream to the mixture.

  3. Pour the mixture into well-greased dariole molds.

  4. Cover with greased paper.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam for twenty minutes.

  2. Turn out the timbales and serve with white 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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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

Whiting
Provides the main body of the timbales once cooked and pureed into a smooth mixture.
Eggs
Set when steamed, binding the fish and flour into a firm, sliceable custard-like structure.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk base, giving the mixture body so it holds its shape.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender mouthfeel to the base.
Milk
Provides moisture that keeps the timbales soft and creamy as they steam.

The step that matters

Steam gently for twenty minutes. Eggs set through gentle heat; if the steam is too vigorous or the timbales cook too long, the proteins tighten and the texture turns rubbery and watery.

“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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