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Fish Timbale

A baked fish mixture of halibut, panada, butter, eggs, cream, and spices, served with tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fish Timbale

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Pound the halibut in a mortar until it becomes a pulp.

  2. Pass the pulp through a sieve to obtain 1 cup.

  3. Mix in the panada, butter, egg yolks, salt, pepper, and nutmeg; stir well and sieve again.

  4. Chill the mixture on ice, then slowly fold in the cream.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter timbale molds and fill them three-quarters full.

  2. Place the molds in a baking pan with 2 cups of hot water.

  3. Bake for 20 minutes.

  4. Serve with tomato 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 + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Halibut
Forms the main body of the timbale and sets into a firm, tender custard-like texture when baked.
Egg yolks
Bind the fish pulp and help it set into a smooth, cohesive mould.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the baked timbale tender rather than dry.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel in the finished timbale.
Panada
Acts as a binder that absorbs moisture and helps the mixture hold together.

The step that matters

Fold in the cream slowly after chilling. Keeping the mixture cold on ice helps the emulsion stay stable, and gentle folding keeps the cream incorporated without deflating or breaking the mixture, which keeps the final texture smooth and light.

“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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