Skip to main content
Main

Egg Timbales

Egg Timbales are baked egg custard cups served with tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Egg Timbales

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the timbales

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, beat the eggs slightly and add salt, onion juice, pepper, and parsley.

  3. Gradually mix in the milk.

  4. Pour the mixture into timbale molds or gem pans.

  5. Place the molds in a pan of hot water and bake until the eggs are set.

Make the tomato sauce

  1. For the sauce, heat the tomatoes and strain them.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix the butter and flour until smooth.

  3. Stir the heated tomatoes into the butter-flour mixture, season, and cook for a few moments.

Serve

  1. Turn the timbales onto a hot platter and pour the tomato sauce around them.

  2. Garnish with 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Parsley + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set when baked to form the firm, custard-like body of the timbales.
Milk
Dilutes the eggs, keeping the timbales tender and moist rather than rubbery.
Tomatoes
Provide the liquid and acidity that make up the sauce base.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the sauce and carries flavour.
Flour
Mixed with butter to thicken the tomato sauce.

The step that matters

Baking the timbales in a water bath. Egg mixtures set into a smooth custard only when heated gently; a hot water bath moderates the oven heat so the eggs cook evenly without curdling, weeping or puffing and cracking.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, pepper, parsley, milk, tomato, butter, flour):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, parsley, milk, tomato, butter, flour. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipesCream Tomato SoupCream Tomato Soup28 recipes