Skip to main content
Main

Lobster Timbals

A baked fish and lobster mixture served in bread-lined molds.

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

Why it works: Cream and lobster are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,050 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Lobster Timbals

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the bread and fish

  1. Soak the stale bread in water until soft.

  2. Squeeze out all the water.

  3. Cook the bread with 1 teaspoon of butter until it reaches a rubbery consistency.

  4. Let it cool.

  5. Pass the halibut or cod through a meat grinder.

  6. Pound the fish in a mortar.

  7. Gradually mix in one-third cup of the prepared bread, the egg, egg yolk, and 4 tablespoons of cream; beat well.

  8. Butter the timbal molds.

  9. Spread the bread mixture on the sides and bottom of the molds.

Make the lobster filling

  1. In a pan, sauté ½ tablespoon of finely chopped onion in 3 tablespoons of butter.

  2. Add 2 tablespoons of flour and ½ cup of cream.

  3. Stir until thickened.

  4. Mix in the yolks of 2 eggs, salt, and pepper to taste.

  5. Add 1 tablespoon of sherry wine and ⅓ cup of chopped lobster.

  6. Pour the mixture into the center of the timbals.

  7. Cover with the fish mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Cook in a 400°F (200°C) oven in a pan of hot water.

  2. Serve with lobster 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. Cream + lobstertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

Halibut or cod
Forms the main body of the timbale, setting into a firm, delicate mass when cooked.
Stale bread
Soaked, squeezed and cooked, it gives the fish mixture body and a lighter texture.
Egg
Binds the fish and bread mixture so it holds its shape when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the bread, onion base and sauce.
Flour
Thickens the cream into a smooth base for the lobster filling.
Lobster
Provides the main shellfish flavor and sweet taste in the filling.

The step that matters

Cook in a pan of hot water. A water bath moderates the oven heat so the egg-set fish mixture cooks gently, staying smooth and tender rather than curdling, cracking or drying out.

“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

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesLobster SauceLobster Sauce174 recipesLobster CroquettesLobster Croquettes99 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipes