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Swedish 'timbales

A fried batter molded on a timbale iron, served with savory fillings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,649 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Swedish 'timbales

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Mix and sift the flour, salt, and sugar.

  2. Gradually add the milk and beaten egg, then the olive oil; mix thoroughly.

Fry the timbales

  1. Heat the frying fat in a deep pan until hot enough for frying.

  2. Wipe the hot timbale iron with fat, then dip it three-fourths into the batter.

  3. Dip the batter-coated iron into the hot fat and cook until golden brown.

  4. Remove from the iron and drain on paper towels.

Garnish and serve

  1. Garnish the edges with beaten egg white and dip in chopped parsley.

  2. Fill the timbales with creamed sweetbreads, oysters, or chicken.

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. Olive + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,649 recipes

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

  2. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Milk + olivetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,828 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

All-purpose flour
Forms the batter's structure, setting into a crisp shell when fried.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds richness and structure to the shell.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps form a smooth, pourable batter.
Olive oil
Adds fat to the batter, contributing tenderness and a softer crumb.

The step that matters

Dipping the iron into the hot fat. The batter must be hot enough to set quickly and brown. If the fat is not hot enough, the batter absorbs oil and stays greasy and may slide off the iron.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, egg, sugar, olive):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, egg, sugar, olive. 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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