Rice Timbal with Peas

Name: Rice Timbal with Peas
Ingredients: Rice prepared with jamón (ham); Peas, cooked

Source: Anonymous, 1920

History

This dish appears in La Mejor Cocinera (Recetas de Cocina), an anonymous Spanish household cookbook issued by the Madrid publishing house of Saturnino Calleja. The earliest firmly located edition is circa 1923, so any earlier dating is unverified. The recipe, titled 'Timbal de arroz con guisantes,' directs the cook to prepare the rice 'según la fórmula de arroz con jamón' — the book's own rice-with-ham method, in which lard and oil, parsley, garlic, tomato and onion are lightly fried before adding bits of ham and then the rice — then to line a mold with that rice leaving a hollow in the center, fill the center with peas cooked in advance, bake it, and unmold it onto a round, flat platter with the edges garnished. The name reflects the culinary term 'timbal'/'timbale,' derived from the French word for kettledrum, which denotes both the drum-shaped mold and the food cooked inside it. Beyond the recipe text itself, the record does not document the dish's social standing, its diners, or any movement between social classes.

Ingredients

Rice prepared with jamón (ham)
Peas, cooked

Instructions

Prepare the rice according to the recipe for rice with jamón (ham). Line a mold with the prepared rice, leaving a hollow cavity in the center. Fill this cavity with the precooked peas. Place the mold in the oven and bake until set. Turn out onto a round, flat serving platter and garnish the edges.