Canned salmon, bread crumbs – it all sounds very mid-century casserole, right? Well NO – even stranger! Hello, Salmon Timbales, courtesy of The Pocket Cookbook, originally from 1942 (this printing, 1966).
Don’t you just love reading recipes and imagining what something is going to taste like? I do, but this one stumped me, so I had to try it. It seemed fairly simple, so I thought to myself: How Bad Could it Be? Well, if a cross between meat-balls and savory muffins sounds good, then you might like them.
Canned salmon is not something I have worked with before, and after this, I think I won’t again any time soon: the skin was left on! It was not de-boned! So before I could create the recipe, I had to pick through piles of canned fish…let’s just say, the compost went out immediately after this went in the oven.
Mixing up the batter, I could tell right away it was not holding together, so I added another egg and a little melted butter. Once it seemed more-or-less dough-like, I scooped it into a muffin tin and baked it as directed. And the result? Odd, though tasty, in a brunch sort of way. I ate one that night for dinner, and it was fine, but tasted better as leftovers the next day, covered in cheese sauce. Perhaps their real place in the world is as an accompaniment to some sort of an egg dish and mimosas. Enough champagne and you can pretty much serve anything for brunch!
Salmon Timbales
2 Tbsp chopped green pepper
¼ cup chopped onion
2 Tbsp fat or salad oil
1 1lb can (2 cups) salmon
2 eggs
2 cups soft bread crumbs
Salt and pepper
Saute green pepper and onion in fat or salad oil; add to salmon. Beat eggs; add with crumbs. Season with salt and pepper. Pack into greased muffin pans; bake in moderate oven (350 degrees F) 30 min.
