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Swedish Timbale Cases
3/4 cup flour. 1 egg. 1/2 teaspoon salt. 1 tablespoon olive oil. 1/2 cup milk. Mix all together. Add oil. Set aside, covered for hour before using. Heat timbale irons in deep fat, then dip in batter and fry. If not crisp, add a little more milk. Serve in them cream peas, meat, fish or any kind of berries or preserves.
A batter for the fried pastry shells made on a timbale iron — thin, brittle cups meant to be filled at the last moment. The whole thing hinges on the iron being properly hot and only partly submerged.
- The hinge: iron temperatureThe iron must be heated in the fat until it is as hot as the fat itself before its first dip, or the batter will slide off instead of clinging. Between cases, return the iron to the fat for a few seconds; a cooled iron produces nothing.
- Fat temperatureMrs. Wilson gives no number. Work at 365–375°F, deep enough to submerge the iron completely. Below that the cases absorb grease and go limp; above it they colour before they set.
- How far to dipDip the iron about two-thirds up its side, never over the rim. Batter that flows over the top locks the case onto the iron and it will have to be picked off in pieces.
- Batter consistencyIt should pour like heavy cream. The instruction to add a little milk if the cases are not crisp is sound — thick batter gives thick, bready walls. Thin it a spoonful at a time.
- Why the hour's restResting lets the flour hydrate fully and the gluten relax, which gives a smoother coating and a more even, blistered shell. Skipping it tends to produce patchy cases.
- Releasing the caseAfter 20–30 seconds the case should loosen and float free, or come away with a light tap of the iron against the pan rim. A fork tine at the edge helps; do not pry from inside.
- Draining and holdingDrain upside down on paper. Once cool they keep several days in an airtight tin and re-crisp in a 300°F oven for a few minutes. Fill only at the moment of serving — cream peas or preserves soften them within minutes.
- YieldThis quantity makes roughly 18 to 24 cases, depending on iron size. Figure two or three per person as an entrée course.
- Finding the ironTimbale and rosette irons are still made and sold as a set of interchangeable heads on a long handle. Season a new one by heating it in the fat before the first case.
The timbale iron is closely associated with the Scandinavian rosette irons, the same sort of tool used for the lacy fried rosetter and struvor served at Christmas in Sweden and Norway — which is generally where the "Swedish" in the name is traced from, though the smooth cup-shaped head is a departure from the ornamental snowflake pattern. American cookbooks of the 1890s through the 1920s treat these cases as a stock entrée vessel, an elegant way to present a small quantity of creamed peas, chicken or fish as a distinct course without pastry-making. Mrs. Wilson, who wrote for the Philadelphia Public Ledger and worked in food conservation during the First World War, was fond of exactly this kind of economy: a few tablespoons of expensive filling made to look like a full plate. The closing line — meat, fish, berries or preserves — shows the case for what it was, a neutral shell equally at home in the savoury course or at dessert.