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Egg Timbales
1 tablespoon butter 1 tablespoon flour 2/3 cup scalded milk 1 tablespoon chopped parsley 3 eggs Salt and pepper Cayenne Celery salt Make a white sauce of the butter, flour, and milk, and add the egg-yolks, slightly beaten. Add all the seasonings, then fold in the stiffly beaten egg-whites. Fill greased baking-dishes two-thirds full of the mixture. Set dishes in a pan of hot water and poach in a moderate oven (350 degrees F.) until firm. Arrange on a platter and serve with tomato cream sauce.
A savory custard set in a water bath — essentially a small soufflé that is meant to hold its shape when unmolded rather than rise. The whole point is gentle, even heat.
- Timbale mouldsA timbale mould is a straight-sided or slightly tapered cup of about 4-6 oz; ramekins, custard cups, or a muffin tin all work. Butter them well and, if you intend to turn the timbales out, line the bottoms with a round of parchment.
- Oven and water bath350°F is right, and the pan of hot water is not optional — it keeps the outside from setting into rubber before the center firms. Fill the pan with water reaching halfway up the moulds.
- Timing"Until firm" runs about 20-25 minutes for 4-oz moulds. A knife slid into the center should come out clean and the surface should barely tremble; overcooked egg custard weeps and goes grainy.
- Tempering the yolksThe white sauce should be off the heat and cooled slightly before the yolks go in, or they will scramble in the pan. Stir a spoonful of sauce into the yolks first if it is still very hot.
- Filling the mouldsTwo-thirds full is deliberate. The whites give some lift in the oven, and a fuller mould will dome and crack rather than settle into a clean shape.
- Seasoning quantitiesThe original leaves salt, pepper, cayenne, and celery salt unmeasured. About 1/2 teaspoon salt, a pinch of cayenne, and 1/4 teaspoon celery salt suits three eggs; celery salt is itself salty, so season the sauce and taste before the whites go in.
- Unmolding and restingLet the timbales stand five minutes out of the water before turning out. Run a thin knife around the edge and invert onto the platter.
- YieldThree eggs and 2/3 cup milk make four small timbales — a light lunch for two, or a first course for four.
The timbale takes its name from the French timbale, a kettledrum, by way of the drum-shaped mould the mixture is baked in; the word covers everything from pastry-cased forcemeats to these simple baked custards. Egg dishes of this kind filled a particular niche in American household cookery of the 1920s and 1930s: they were commonly recommended as light and digestible, and so as suitable for invalids, children, and meatless meals, and they turn up in many general cookbooks of the period. The New Delineator Recipes came out of The Delineator, a Butterick magazine that began as a pattern catalogue and grew into a broad household journal.