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Timbale Cases
1 teaspoon sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup flour 1 egg 1 tablespoon oil 1/2 cup milk Fat for frying Mix sugar, salt and sifted flour. Add the well-beaten egg, oil and milk. Beat with an egg-beater until perfectly smooth, then strain. This should be made an hour before it is needed and set aside in a cool place to lose the air which has been beaten into it. Pour into a cup that is deep enough to allow the timbale iron to be lowered into it to the required depth without touching the bottom. Have ready a kettle of fat, place the iron in it and heat until the fat is hot enough to brown a piece of bread while counting forty. The fat should be deep enough to more than cover the mold end of the iron. When the iron is heated, take out, remove surplus fat, using crumpled tissue-paper, and lower into batter until iron is covered to not more than three-fourths of its height. This is necessary to allow for the rise of the batter in cooking. If only a thin layer of the batter adheres to the mold, dip it into the batter again until there is a smooth layer of the partly cooked batter. Plunge quickly into hot fat and cook for about twelve seconds. When properly cooked, the timbale case should slip easily from the mold. Place the finished case on absorbent paper to drain and continue the operation until the required number are made. A fluted timbale iron is easier to work with, as the case does not slip off until thoroughly cooked. If the cases are not crisp, the batter is too thick and should be diluted with milk. These cases may be used with great variety. They may be filled with a choice creamed vegetable, or with creamed oysters, chicken or sweetbreads, or they may be filled with fresh or cooked fruit topped with whipped cream or powdered sugar, and served as a sweet course.
A batter-shell recipe that depends entirely on equipment: a timbale (rosette) iron, a deep pan of fat and a thermometer will do everything the original asks. The batter itself is a thin, unleavened crepe batter.
- The hinge: a screaming-hot, well-drained ironThe iron must be heated in the fat, then blotted before it goes into the batter. A cool iron picks up too much batter and the shell will not release; a wet iron sheds the batter into the pan. Both faults look like a bad recipe and are actually a bad iron.
- The bread test in degreesFat that browns a bread cube "while counting forty" is roughly 365-375F. Below that the cases drink oil, above about 385F they colour before the batter sets on the mold.
- Timbale ironSold today as a rosette iron: a small cast form on a long handle, usually with several interchangeable heads. The fluted pattern the recipe recommends grips the shell until it is cooked through, which is the reason to prefer it.
- Rest the batterThe hour of resting is not optional padding. It lets the beaten-in air escape and the flour hydrate, and it is what gives a thin, glassy shell instead of a bubbled one.
- Strain itAny lump will keep the batter from coating the mold evenly, and a bare patch means the shell tears on release. A fine sieve after beating takes ten seconds.
- Twelve seconds is rightThese are eggshell-thin and cook almost on contact. Judge by colour -- pale gold -- rather than by the clock, and lift the moment the case loosens on the mold.
- Depth of dipThree-quarters up the mold is the maximum. Dipping to the rim gives a lip of batter that seals over the top and the case cannot be filled.
- Yield and holdingThis quantity makes roughly 18 to 24 small cases depending on the iron. They keep several days airtight and recrisp in a 300F oven; fill them at the last minute, since any moist filling softens them within minutes.