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Timbale Cases
Mix three-fourths cup flour, one-half teaspoonful of salt. Add gradually one-half cupful of milk, and one egg beaten slightly, and one tablespoonful olive oil or melted butter. Let batter stand one hour. If the batter is too thick the cases will be soft, so add a trifle more milk. Put fat in small deep pan and batter in small bowl or cup. When fat is hot put the timbale iron in and let it stand from six to ten minutes. If hot enough the batter will cling to iron when put in. Lower only two-thirds in depth. If batter drops off, iron is too cold. Drain and fill with creamed chicken , veal, lobster or sweetbreads.
A thin fritter batter fried on a heated timbale iron to make crisp edible shells. The technique is unforgiving of a cool iron and forgiving of almost nothing else, so the temperature work matters more than the ingredient list.
- The hinge: heat the iron in the fatThe batter clings only to metal that is as hot as the fat around it, which is why the recipe parks the iron in the oil for six to ten minutes before the first dip. A cold or wiped iron sheds the batter; a properly hot one takes a thin even coat that sets on contact.
- Fat temperatureThe original gives no number. Work at 365-375F. Below that the cases absorb oil and stay limp; above it the thin batter colours before it crisps.
- Two-thirds, and no moreDip the iron only two-thirds of its depth so the batter stops short of the top rim. If it flows over the edge the shell locks onto the iron and tears when you try to release it.
- Timbale iron vs. rosette ironThe tool is a small fluted or cup-shaped metal form on a long handle, sold today mostly as a rosette iron. Timbale forms give a straight-sided cup for filling; rosette forms give a flat flower. Either works with this batter.
- The resting hour is not optionalStanding an hour lets the flour hydrate and the gluten relax, which gives a smoother, thinner coat. Batter used straight away tends to be lumpy and to fry into thick, doughy walls.
- Batter consistencyAim for the body of thin cream — it should sheet off a spoon rather than drop in blobs. The note about adding "a trifle more milk" is the real adjustment; test-fry one case and thin the batter if the shell comes out soft or heavy.
- Yield and holdingThe recipe gives no yield; expect a dozen or more small cases, depending on the size of the iron. Drain them upside down on paper, and fill only at the moment of serving — a creamed filling softens the shells within a few minutes.
- The fillingsCreamed chicken, veal, lobster or sweetbreads all mean the same thing here: cooked meat bound in a thick white sauce, seasoned and served hot. Sweetbreads require soaking, blanching and trimming and are a project of their own; the other three are straightforward.
Timbale cases belong to the run of fried, dipped and moulded trifles that filled the lighter courses of American entertaining in what is generally taken to be the late Victorian and Edwardian period — the same impulse that produced patty shells, croustades and bread cases. The word comes from the French timbale, a drum, by way of the drum-shaped mould, though by the time the term crossed into English cookbooks it had drifted to cover almost any small edible container. Their appeal was economy dressed as luxury: three-fourths of a cup of flour and an egg turned a modest quantity of creamed chicken into an individually plated course. These were luncheon and reception food, judged on whether the shell shattered cleanly under a fork.