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Pea Timbales

Pea Timbales are baked pea cakes served with white sauce and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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

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.

Prepare the mixture

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

  2. Mix in the melted butter, well-beaten eggs, salt, pepper, cayenne, and grated onion.

Bake and serve

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

  2. Poach or steam in the oven at 350°F (175°C) until firm, about 30 minutes.

  3. Turn out the timbales and serve with white sauce mixed with chopped 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. 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
Bind the pea pulp and set when heated, giving the timbales their firm shape.
Cooked peas
Form the main body of the timbale, supplying flavor and a smooth, moist texture.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the timbales tender rather than dry.
White sauce
Adds creamy moisture and richness to the finished timbales when served.

The step that matters

Poach or steam until firm. Eggs set when heated, so cooking too hot or too long can make the timbales rubbery or cause curdling. Cooking gently in a moist environment keeps them smooth and tender.

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.

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