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Ham Timbales

A baked dish of ground ham, eggs, and crackers topped with a creamy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Ham Timbales

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the timbales

  1. Boil the ham well, then grind it using a meat chopper.

  2. Measure 2 cups of the ground ham and place it in a bowl.

  3. Add the beaten eggs, crushed soda crackers, milk, cayenne pepper, and salt. Mix well.

  4. Grease 12 timbale molds with butter and dredge with cracker dust.

  5. Fill the molds three-quarters full with the ham mixture.

  6. Place the molds in a shallow pan surrounded by water.

  7. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 20 minutes.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Heat the cream in a double boiler.

  2. Add the whole onion to the cream.

  3. Once scalded, remove the onion and mix in the butter and flour until smooth.

  4. Stir in the Worcestershire sauce and chopped hard-boiled eggs.

  5. Pour the sauce over the timbales and garnish with parsley and green peppers.

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

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Ham
Forms the savoury body of the timbales, setting into a firm, sliceable custard base.
Eggs
Bind the ham mixture and set during baking to give the timbales their structure.
Soda crackers
Absorb liquid and add crumb, helping the timbale mixture hold its shape.
Milk
Adds moisture so the baked timbales stay tender rather than dry.
Heavy cream
Makes the sauce rich and smooth, giving it body and a silky texture.
Flour
Thickens the cream sauce when cooked with butter, giving it a smooth consistency.

The step that matters

Once scalded, remove the onion and mix in the butter and flour until smooth.. Cream scorches easily over direct heat, so a double boiler keeps it gentle. Mixing butter and flour into hot cream must be done thoroughly, or lumps form and the sauce won't thicken evenly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, egg, milk, pepper, butter, cream, 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.

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