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Walnut Timbales
3/4 cup milk 1/4 cup cream 3/4 teaspoon salt 3/4 teaspoon celery salt 1 egg, beaten 1 cup stale bread crumbs 1/4 cup chopped walnuts Mix the ingredients well together, put into oiled timbale molds or cups, set in a pan of hot water, and bake till set. Serve with peas or with peas in cream sauce.
A small baked custard bound with bread and walnuts, cooked gently in a water bath. It behaves like a savoury bread pudding, and the whole success of it rests on keeping the heat low.
- Oven and water bathBake at 325-350F, no hotter. The custard is only one egg to a cup of dairy, so a fast oven will curdle it and weep water into the moulds. The pan of hot water should come halfway up the moulds.
- Bake till setExpect 25 to 35 minutes for small moulds. They are done when the centre is just firm to a light press and a knife inserted off-centre comes out clean; residual heat finishes the middle.
- Timbale mouldsStraight-sided metal or ceramic moulds of about 1/2 cup. Individual custard cups, small ramekins or a muffin tin all work. Oil them well and let the timbales stand five minutes before turning out.
- Stale bread crumbsThis means soft crumbs torn or grated from day-old bread, not the dry sandy crumbs sold for coating. Dry commercial crumbs will drink the milk and give a dense, pasty result; if that is all you have, use about half as much.
- Celery saltThree-quarters of a teaspoon of celery salt plus three-quarters of plain salt is assertive by modern palates. Start with half of each and taste the mixture before it goes into the moulds.
- CreamUnqualified period cream was usually nearer today's light or single cream than to heavy cream. Half-and-half is a fair substitute; heavy cream will make the custard richer.
- YieldAbout four or five small timbales, enough for four as a first course or two as a light main dish with the peas.
The timbale takes its name from the French timbale, a kettledrum or a metal drinking cup, the mould being said to echo that shape, and by the late nineteenth century the word covered any savoury custard or forcemeat baked in one. Cookery schools of the period liked them because they turned modest material into something that could be unmoulded and served in individual portions, which read as refined. Nut dishes of this kind belong to the American health and vegetarian cookery of around the turn of the century, where chopped nuts stood in for meat: walnuts supplied fat, protein and a chewy texture, and the egg-and-crumb custard held everything in a shape. The recipe's own suggestion of peas, plain or in cream sauce, gives colour on the plate.