No. 969

Irving Timbales

Timbales a la Irving

Pound some cooked game or young rabbit, free of all sinews and skin with an equal quantity of rice, half as much bechamel (No. 409) and a little fresh butter, rub through a fine sieve, and set it away to get cold. Butter some cold molds (No 2, Fig. 137) and decorate the bottom with a three-quarters of an inch in diameter slice of truffle, and the sides with triangles cut from truffles, one and five-eighths of an inch long, by three-eighths of an inch wide at the widest part. Set them round the narrow ends reaching to the bottom, the widest ends meeting together at the opening of the timbale. Fill the bottom and inner sides with game cream forcemeat (No. 75) and place a ball of the prepared game puree in the center, and fill it up with game forcemeat; finish cooking and serve same as No. 959. Serve separately a champagne sauce (No. 445), with some essence of game (No. 389).

← No. 968 Imperial Timbales Hot Side Dishes No. 970 Lagardere Timbales →

For the Modern Kitchen

A Delmonico's timbale is an assembly job, not a cooking job: nearly all the work is in the two farces and the truffle lining, and the actual cooking is a gentle poach. Ranhofer's numbered cross-references mean the page is only about a third of the recipe.

The cross-referencesNo. 409 is bechamel, No. 75 a game cream forcemeat, No. 445 a champagne sauce and No. 389 an essence of game, i.e. a reduced game stock. No. 959 supplies the cooking and serving method the text omits, which for timbales of this kind normally means poaching the filled molds in a water bath until set, then unmolding. Without those numbers you cannot follow this.
Bain-marie, not a hot ovenStand the molds in a pan of water kept just below a simmer. A cream forcemeat that boils curdles and weeps; it should set like a custard. The recipe gives no time or temperature, so judge it by feel: cook until just set through, which for small molds is a matter of minutes rather than an hour, and take it to a safe internal temperature since the forcemeat contains raw game, egg and cream.
"Cold molds"Chilled molds, buttered while cold, so the butter stays firm and the truffle pieces hold their place while you build the lining. Warm metal and the decoration slides.
Truffle geometryThe measurements are exact because the pattern is the point: a 3/4-inch disc at the base and tapering triangles about 1 5/8 by 3/8 inch set point-down, fanning out toward the rim. Slice truffle on a mandoline and cut with a small knife or aspic cutter; the pieces need to be thin enough to bend into the mold.
Game and rabbit'Young rabbit' means a tender young animal rather than an old one; 'cooked game' is left unspecified and any cooked game meat will serve. Farmed rabbit and pheasant are both mild; if the meat is lean, the fresh butter in the puree matters more than the recipe lets on.
The pureeEqual weights meat and cooked rice, half that weight of bechamel, then sieved. Rice is doing the work gelatin would do in a modern version — it firms the center ball so it holds its shape inside the softer forcemeat. Chill it thoroughly or you cannot roll it.
YieldThe recipe gives no quantities and no mold size, only a reference to mold No. 2, Fig. 137; timbales of this sort are individual portions, so count one per person as a hot side dish or first course and scale the puree and forcemeat to the number of molds you have.
Champagne sauceServed separately, sharpened with the game essence. Any dry sparkling wine reduces the same way; do not let it boil hard once the butter or cream is in.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its habit of naming dishes after people is a house habit — patrons, performers and public figures all got a garnish attached to their names. Which Irving this one honors is not stated; the name is often assumed to point to Washington Irving, whose New York associations were strong, though the English actor Henry Irving toured America repeatedly in these years and was exactly the sort of visitor Delmonico's flattered in print. Either way, the dish itself is standard high-French practice of the period: a lined and decorated mold, a cream forcemeat, a poach in the bain-marie, and a sauce sent to table apart. The truffle triangles measured to the eighth of an inch tell you what kind of kitchen this was — a brigade with enough hands to cut them, and a dining room that would notice.