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Cheese and Egg Timbales

Cheese and Egg Timbales are baked cakes made from eggs, cheese, milk, stale bread crumbs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,130 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese and 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

  1. Press the hard-boiled eggs through a ricer or chop them finely.

  2. Beat the raw egg whites until slightly stiff.

  3. Mix all the ingredients together.

Bake

  1. Grease timbale molds and fill them about three-fourths full with the mixture.

  2. Place the molds in a pan with a little hot water and cover with a sheet of white paper.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until firm, about 20 minutes.

Serve

  1. Carefully turn them out onto a heated dish and serve with Cream of Tomato Sauce or Cheese 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. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  2. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the timbale structure as they cook firm and bind the mixture together.
Raw egg whites
Beaten to slight stiffness, they add lightness and help the timbales rise and hold their shape.
Milk
Adds moisture so the mixture stays tender rather than dry as it sets.
Stale bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give body, adding structure to the timbales.
Grated cheese
Adds richness and flavor, and helps the mixture set as it cooks.

The step that matters

Baking in a water bath. Setting the molds in a pan of hot water moderates the heat around them, so the eggs set gently and evenly without becoming rubbery or cracking. Covering them keeps the surface from drying out.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, bread, cheese):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, bread, cheese. 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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