Skip to main content
Main

Pea Timbales

A baked or steamed pea-based dish shaped in molds, served with white sauce and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Pea Timbales

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Press the cooked peas through a sieve to obtain 1 cup of pulp.

  2. In a bowl, combine the pea pulp, melted butter, beaten eggs, and seasonings.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into buttered molds and cover them.

  2. Poach in the oven or steam until firm, about 30 minutes.

  3. Turn out the timbales and serve with white sauce mixed with parsley or additional cooked peas.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Peas + parsleytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,885 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Peas + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set and bind the pea pulp into a firm, sliceable custard as they cook.
Cooked peas
Provide the main body, sweet flavor, and color of the timbale.
Butter
Adds fat for richer flavor and a softer, more tender texture.
White sauce
Adds creamy moisture that balances the firm timbale when served.

The step that matters

Poach until firm, not overcooked. Eggs set as they heat, so undercooking leaves the timbale loose and overcooking makes it rubbery or curdled. Gentle, steady heat gives a smooth, firm custard.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, pepper, onion, sauce, parsley):

  1. Black-eyed peafits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Sesamefits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, pepper, onion, sauce, parsley. 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

Green PeasGreen Peas229 recipesGreen Peas SoupGreen Peas Soup35 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipes