Skip to main content
Dessert

Petit Timbales a LA Russe

Small butter shells coated in breadcrumbs, fried, and filled with game, poultry, or oysters.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Petit Timbales a LA Russe

Ingredients

Directions

Shape the butter

  1. Work out the whey of the butter and shape it into a square about 3 inches thick.

  2. Use a small patty cutter dipped in water to cut out pieces from the butter.

  3. Roll the pieces in fine bread crumbs to shape them well.

  4. Beat the eggs and brush them over the pieces, then roll them again in crumbs.

  5. Place the pieces upright on a dish sprinkled with bread crumbs.

  6. Make an opening at the top of each piece with a smaller cutter dipped in hot water.

  7. Keep the pieces in a cool place until ready to fry.

Fry and fill

  1. Fry the timbales in hot lard, two or three at a time.

  2. As you fry, place them on a large hair sieve to drain excess butter.

  3. Once fried, fill them with the emince or purée of game, poultry, or oysters.

  4. Dish them on a napkin and garnish with fried parsley.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Bread + oystertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + oystertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Forms the shell, which melts and turns rich and crisp-edged when fried.
Eggs
Bind the bread crumb coating so it adheres evenly to the butter pieces.
Fine bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust that holds the shape during frying.

The step that matters

Keeping the butter cold while shaping and coating. Butter softens quickly at room temperature, making the pieces hard to shape and likely to lose their form. Keeping them cool until frying helps them hold their shape and keeps the crumb coating intact.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, bread, egg, oyster):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, bread, egg, oyster. 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.

You might also like

Bread PuddingBread Pudding153 recipesSoft Ginger BreadSoft Ginger Bread85 recipesOrange Potato BreadOrange Potato Bread80 recipesBrown Bread PuddingBrown Bread Pudding47 recipes