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Timbales of Salmon

A baked salmon and egg mixture shaped in timbale cases, topped with white sauce and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Timbales of Salmon

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Remove bones and skin from the salmon and flake it into bits.

  3. Rub the yolks of the hard‑boiled eggs to a paste and stir into the minced fish.

  4. Mince the whites of the hard‑boiled eggs as fine as possible and add to the salmon mixture.

  5. Season with salt, white pepper, lemon juice, and a dash of cayenne.

Make the mixture

  1. Beat the mixture into the well‑beaten yolks of the 3 eggs.

  2. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

  3. Pour the mixture into buttered timbale cases.

Bake and serve

  1. Set the cases in a pan of boiling water and bake for about 25 minutes.

  2. Turn out onto a hot platter and pour white sauce with chopped parsley around the timbales.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. White pepper + parsleytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Salmon + eggtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,485 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. White pepper + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,658 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Salmon + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Forms the main body of the timbales and gives their flavour.
Eggs
Set when baked to bind the mixture, and whipped whites add lightness.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the fish.

The step that matters

Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air trapped in the whites. Stirring or beating them down removes that air, so the timbales bake up less light and airy.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, egg, lemon, sauce, parsley):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, egg, lemon, 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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