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Fish Timbale

A baked fish mixture of halibut, panada, butter, eggs, cream, and spices, served with tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fish 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.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Pound the halibut in a mortar to a pulp, then pass it through a puree sieve to make 1 cup of pulp.

  2. Add the panada, butter, egg yolks, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Stir well and pass the mixture through the sieve again.

  3. Place the mixture on ice and slowly add the cream.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter the timbale molds.

  2. Fill the molds three-quarters full.

  3. Place the molds in a baking pan with 2 cups of hot water. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 20 minutes.

  4. Serve with tomato sauce.

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 + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 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

Halibut
Forms the main body of the timbale, giving it its delicate, tender structure.
Egg yolks
Bind the fish and help set the mixture into a firm, custard-like texture.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the timbale tender rather than dry.
Panada
Adds body and helps the mixture hold together while it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more tender texture.

The step that matters

Adding the cream on ice. Keeping the mixture very cold while the cream is slowly added helps prevent the emulsion from breaking. A warm mixture can separate or curdle, leaving the timbale grainy or greasy.

“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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