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Halibut Timbales II
1 lb. halibut. 2/3 cup milk. Yolk 1 egg. 1 1/4 teaspoons salt. 2/3 teaspoon corn-starch. ¼ teaspoon pepper Few grains cayenne ½ teaspoon corn-starch 1/3 cup thick cream Re- Force fish through a meat chopper, then rub through a sieve or finely chop. Add yolk of egg, seasonings, cornstarch, and cream beaten until stiff. Cook same as Halibut Timbales I and serve with Cream or Lobster Sauce.
Lobster Timbales I Sprinkle slightly buttered Dario or timbale moulds with lobster coral rubbed through a strainer. Line moulds with Fish Force-meat I, fill centres with Creamed Lobster, and cover with force-meat. Put in a pan, half surround with hot water, place over moulds buttered paper, and bake twenty minutes in a moderate oven. Serve with Lobster or Béchamel Sauce. 2 lb. live lobster
A timbale here is a savoury mousse baked in a small mould set in a water bath, not the crisp pastry shell the word later came to mean. The whole method hinges on the cream being whipped stiff and folded in cold, which is what lifts the pounded fish into something light rather than a dense fish loaf.
- Keep everything coldChill the fish, the bowl and the cream. Warm purée will not hold whipped cream, and the mixture separates in the mould, giving a watery layer under a rubbery cap.
- "Cream beaten until stiff"It is the cream that is whipped, not the mixture as a whole. Whip the 1/3 cup to soft-stiff peaks and fold it in last, after the yolk, seasonings and corn-starch are worked into the fish.
- Fish quantityThe list as printed has lost its first line, giving only the seasonings, corn-starch and cream. A workable amount for 1/3 cup cream and one yolk is on the order of 1 lb raw halibut, free of skin and bone, though the original figure is missing and the yield is not stated.
- Pepper measureThe pepper figure has lost its fraction in printing; read it as a quarter teaspoon. The cayenne is given only as 'few grains'.
- MouldsDariole moulds are small tapering tin cups, on the order of 1/2 cup each. Buttered ramekins or a muffin tin will stand in.
- The water bath and ovenSet the moulds in a pan, pour in hot water to come halfway up, lay buttered paper over the tops, and bake in a moderate oven; for modern ranges that is usually taken as somewhere around 325-350F. The book gives twenty minutes for moulds of this size; bake until the centre is just set.
- Do not let the water boilA simmering bath overcooks the outside of a timbale before the middle sets and produces holes. Keep the water hot but still.
- ServingUnmould onto a warm plate and coat with Cream or Lobster Sauce, as directed. The recipe states no yield.
Timbales of pounded fish belong to the French repertoire that Fannie Farmer's generation was busy translating for American households, and they show how the sieve did the work of a food processor: fish through the meat chopper, then forced through a sieve to a smooth paste, bound with a yolk and lightened with whipped cream. Halibut was a natural choice on the New England coast, being firm, white and lean. The entree section of the book is full of these small moulded dishes, and a timbale could be shaped, sauced and served individually without carving at the table.