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Timbal a LA Parisienne

A molded dish of macaroni with game, truffles or mushrooms, and Espagnole sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Crayfish and sauce work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 195 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Timbal a LA Parisienne

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Boil the macaroni in salted water with a little butter until nearly done, then strain it.

  2. Arrange the macaroni in a timbal mold, buttered with crayfish butter, forming a spiral.

  3. Cut the ends of the macaroni square to join them neatly.

Fill and seal

  1. Spread the quenelle of game over the bottom and sides of the mold without disturbing the macaroni.

  2. Fill the mold with cold escalopes of meat and truffles or mushrooms, sauced with reduced Espagnole.

  3. On a piece of paper, form a round layer of farce 4.5 inches wide and 0.5 inches thick.

  4. Lightly wash the macaroni surface with egg to help the farce adhere.

  5. Place the farce on the ragout, pressing it around the edges of the mold.

Cook

  1. Put the timbal in boiling water, ensuring the water reaches within half an inch of the top of the mold, and cook in a bain‑marie without boiling.

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. Crayfish + saucetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together195 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Butter + crayfishtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together343 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  4. Crayfish + truffletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together129 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Pheasant + truffletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together133 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Italian macaroni
Forms the golden spiral shell that holds the filling and gives the timbal its structure.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the macaroni cook gently without sticking together.
Quenelle of game
Forms a firm, savoury lining that sets during cooking and holds the filling together.
Escalopes of pheasants, partridges, or rabbits
Provides the main meat filling, which turns tender and moist during gentle cooking.
Truffles or mushrooms
Adds earthy aroma and savoury depth to the filling.
1 egg
Lightly brushed on the macaroni, it helps the farce stick to the pasta surface.

The step that matters

Cook in a bain‑marie without boiling. Gentle, steady heat in the water bath lets the quenelle and farce set smoothly. Boiling water would toughen the proteins and could crack or dry the timbal.

“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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