Skip to main content
Main

Salmon Timbale

A baked salmon custard topped with a boiled egg and cornstarch dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Salmon Timbale

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the base

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a saucepan, melt the butter and flour together.

  3. Add the milk and cook for about 5 minutes.

  4. Stir in the salmon and let the mixture cool.

  5. Beat in the yolks of 3 eggs, then gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

Bake and make the dressing

  1. Pour the mixture into a dish set in water and bake for 20 minutes.

  2. For the dressing, mix the chopped hard boiled eggs, cornstarch, raw egg yolk, salt, and pepper with 1 cup of cold water.

  3. Stir the mixture on the stove until it comes to a boil.

  4. Remove from heat and add the lemon juice.

  5. Pour the dressing over the timbale and serve, garnished with lemon, watercress, or radishes.

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. Flour + milktop 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

Egg whites
Whipped and folded in to lighten the mixture and give the timbale its airy, set structure.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard base and help it set into a tender, sliceable texture when baked.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the white sauce that carries the salmon and sets with the eggs.
Butter
Fat that combines with flour to form a roux, adding richness and body to the base.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth sauce that holds the salmon together.
Cornstarch
Thickens the dressing so it becomes smooth and pourable when brought to a boil.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stiffly beaten whites trap air that gives the timbale its lift. Stirring them in vigorously deflates the foam, so fold gently to keep the mixture 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.

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesSalmon SaladSalmon Salad155 recipesSalmon CroquettesSalmon Croquettes129 recipesCanned SalmonCanned Salmon14 recipes