Home › Vegetables › Timbale of Potatoes
Timbale of Potatoes
Boil, drain, wash and pass through a fine sieve two quarts of Irish potatoes, place in a saucepan with six ounces of butter, two whole eggs, the yolks of six eggs, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and a little sugar; have a plain twoquart copper timbale mould, well buttered, and sprinkled with fresh breadcrumbs, and bits of butter on top; bake for half an hour in a moderately hot oven; before serving pass the blade of a knife between the potatoes and the mould, turn over carefully, and in a few minutes take the mould off and serve.
A rich potato pudding baked in a mould and turned out whole. The success of it rests entirely on how dry the potato purée is before the butter and eggs go in.
- "Wash" is a typo for "mash""Wash" is most likely an error for "mash," giving the sequence boil, drain, mash, then push through a fine sieve (though some period recipes do rinse boiled potatoes before sieving). A ricer or food mill does the same work; a food processor turns boiled potato to glue and should not be used.
- Two quarts of potatoesThe recipe does not say whether this is measured raw or as sieved purée; since the mould is itself only two quarts, the smaller raw reading may be intended. Use a dry, floury variety — russets or a mealy baking potato — and let them steam dry in the hot pan for a minute after draining.
- Six ounces of butterA stick and a half, 170 g. With six yolks and two whole eggs, this is closer to a soufflé base than to mashed potatoes, and it should be seasoned assertively.
- "A little sugar"A teaspoon at most; the intention appears to be seasoning rather than sweetening the dish.
- The timbale mouldA plain straight-sided two-quart mould — a charlotte tin, soufflé dish or deep cake tin all work. Copper is not required. Butter it thoroughly and coat with fine dry breadcrumbs so the crumb layer forms the crust that lets it release.
- Oven temperature"Moderately hot" corresponds roughly to 375–400°F. Half an hour will set a two-quart mould only if the potato mixture goes in warm; from cold, allow 45 minutes and look for a firm centre and a browned crumb shell.
- Turning outRun the knife round, invert onto a warmed platter, and leave the mould in place a few minutes as directed — the steam that collects loosens the crumb crust. Lifting immediately is what tears the top.
- YieldServes eight to ten as a side dish. It does not reheat well once unmoulded; bake it to come out of the oven near serving time.
The timbale takes its name from the French timbale, a drum-shaped mould (and ultimately, by way of Spanish, from the Arabic ṭabl, a drum), and by the late nineteenth century the word covered both the vessel and anything baked in it and turned out standing. Recipes like this one belong to the restaurant-derived French cookery that American household books borrowed freely, down to the instruction to use a copper mould. The reference to "Irish potatoes" is a period Americanism distinguishing the ordinary white potato from the sweet potato, which in some regions, chiefly the South, was simply "the potato" unless specified. The dish is a way of turning a plain vegetable into a course that could be presented whole at table — the same impulse behind moulded rice and moulded macaroni.