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Ham Timbales

Ham timbales are baked egg and ham cakes served with cream sauce and peas.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Ham Timbales

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

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

  2. Beat the eggs in a bowl.

  3. Add the cream and boiling water to the eggs, then mix in the ham, bread crumbs, salt, and paprika.

  4. Grease timbale molds with butter and fill them with the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the molds in a baking dish lined with several folds of paper.

  2. Surround the molds with boiling water and bake until firm in the center.

  3. To serve, turn the timbales out of the molds and surround with cream sauce and peas.

  4. Garnish each timbale with a sprig of 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Bread + peastop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard so the timbales hold their shape when turned out.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the custard.
Cold cooked ham
Provides the main savory flavor and substance of the timbales.
Bread crumbs
Soak up liquid and give the mixture a softer, lighter body.

The step that matters

Bake until firm in the center in a water bath. Egg custards turn rubbery if baked too hot or too long. Surrounding the molds with boiling water moderates the heat so the centers set gently and evenly.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Peasthe original
  2. Almondfits about as well
  3. Lima beansfits about as well
  4. Chestnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, ham, bread, sauce, butter. 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.

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