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To Cook Terrapin

A terrapin cooked in butter, cream, white wine, cayenne pepper, salt, flour, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

To Cook Terrapin

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the terrapin until cooked through, depending on its size.

  2. In a separate pan, melt the butter over low heat.

Make the sauce

  1. Add the cream, wine, cayenne pepper, salt, and flour to the melted butter.

  2. Mix in a little water to prevent the butter from separating.

  3. Just before serving, stir in the cream mixture.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. White wine + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Cream + white winetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,760 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Terrapin
Provides the main protein and body of the stew once cooked through.
Butter
Forms the rich fat base of the sauce and carries its flavour.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cream mixture into a sauce.
White wine
Adds acidity that brightens the richness of the butter and cream.

The step that matters

Mix in a little water to prevent the butter from separating. Butter is an emulsion of fat and water. Adding a little water helps the sauce stay smooth and keeps the butterfat from separating out as it heats and thickens.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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