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Macaroni Timbales
Line slightly buttered Dario moulds with boiled macaroni. Cut strips the length of height of mould, and place closely together around inside of mould. Fill with Chicken, or Salmon Force-meat. Put in a pan, half surround with hot water, cover with buttered paper, and bake thirty minutes in a moderate oven. Serve with Lobster, Béchamel, or Hollandaise Sauce I.
A late-Victorian entrée that is mostly assembly: a lining of cooked macaroni, a fish or poultry forcemeat filling, and a gentle bake in a water bath. The lining is the whole point, so cut and place it carefully.
- "Dario moulds"Almost certainly dariole moulds — small straight-sided tin cups, usually somewhere in the 2 to 5 fl oz range. Individual pudding moulds, popover tins or short ramekins do the same job; a straight side matters more than the exact size.
- Moderate ovenAbout 350F, give or take. The forcemeat sets rather than browns, and the water bath keeps the outside from tightening before the centre cooks.
- The macaroniPeriod macaroni was long hollow tubes, not elbows. Cook long ziti or bucatini until pliable but not soft, cool it, and cut it to the height of the mould; splitting the tubes lengthwise is one way to get them to lie flat. Elbow macaroni is poorly suited to lining a mould.
- ForcemeatThe paired forcemeats are quenelle-type mixtures of pounded flesh bound with egg and cream. Pack it in firmly to avoid air pockets, and cook until the centre reaches 165F — thirty minutes suits dariole-sized moulds, longer for anything bigger.
- Buttered paperParchment cut to fit, buttered side down, keeps condensation off the surface. Foil works but should not be sealed tight around the pan or the water will steam the tops.
- Half surround with hot waterWater halfway up the moulds, already hot when it goes in the oven. Cold water in the pan delays the point at which the filling begins to set.
- UnmouldingRest five minutes out of the water, run a thin knife around the rim, then invert onto a warm plate. Straight from the oven they slump; left too long they stick.
- YieldThe quantity depends entirely on the forcemeat recipe you pair it with; the recipe as printed specifies none. Reckon one or two moulds per person as an entrée course.
The timbale takes its name from the French word for a drum, and by extension the drum-shaped mould it is cooked in. Dishes of this kind sat squarely in the "entrée" course of a formal late nineteenth-century dinner — and their appeal was as much visual as culinary, since the lining gave a plain forcemeat a striped, architectural surface when turned out. Fannie Farmer's book is full of these constructions, and they reflect the Boston Cooking School's project of teaching middle-class American cooks the vocabulary of French service without a French kitchen brigade: the technique is patient rather than skilled, and the three suggested sauces are all standards the reader has already been taught earlier in the volume.