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Timbale Oe Salmon

A baked salmon custard served in a cup with a lime‑flavored butter sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lime match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,491 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Timbale Oe Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the timbale mixture

  1. In a bowl, combine the salmon, thick cream, and egg whites, beating continuously.

  2. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  3. Fill small cups or egg cups with the mixture and place them in a dish of hot water.

Bake and make the sauce

  1. Bake for 20 minutes at 400°F (200°C).

  2. Once done, turn out the timbales onto plates.

  3. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Whisk in the flour. Gradually add the boiling water, stirring constantly until thickened.

  4. Flavor the sauce with lime juice and serve immediately.

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 + limetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,491 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Salmon + creamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,401 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Flour + limetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,381 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 timbale and gives it its flavor and texture.
Egg whites
Set when baked, giving the timbales structure and holding them together.
Thick cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the timbale mixture soft and tender.
Flour
Thickens the butter to form the base of the sauce.
Butter
Provides fat for the sauce and carries the flour's thickening into a smooth roux.

The step that matters

Gradually add the boiling water while stirring constantly. Adding the hot liquid slowly while stirring keeps the flour from clumping, so the sauce thickens smoothly instead of becoming lumpy.

Swap the lime

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, cream, egg, pepper, flour, butter):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Limethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, cream, egg, pepper, flour, 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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