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Terrapin White Stew

A stew of terrapins cooked in a white sauce of butter, egg yolks, wine, cream, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Terrapin White Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the terrapins

  1. Boil the terrapins until done.

  2. Reserve a portion of the cooking liquid.

Make the stew

  1. In a bowl, rub the egg yolks into a smooth paste with the butter.

  2. Add the terrapins to the mixture in a chafing dish.

  3. Pour in the white wine and add the nutmeg, salt, lemon rind, cayenne pepper, and cream.

  4. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring constantly.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Terrapins
Form the main body of the stew and provide its meaty texture.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Mashed with butter, they thicken the sauce and give it a rich, smooth body.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour and helping create a smooth texture.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma, brightening the rich sauce.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, making the sauce silkier and milder.

The step that matters

Cook for 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Egg yolks and cream can curdle or turn grainy if overheated or left still. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly so the sauce thickens smoothly.

“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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