Skip to main content
Main

Stewed Terrapin

A stew made from terrapin meat, butter, milk, flour, sherry, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Allspice and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Stewed Terrapin

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the terrapins

  1. Put two terrapins in hot (not boiling) water for two minutes.

  2. Remove the terrapins from the water.

  3. Rub off the outer skin from the legs and neck of the terrapins.

  4. Return the terrapins to the kettle.

  5. Boil the terrapins until they are easily removed from the shell, about 1.5 to 2 hours.

  6. Open the shell at the side.

  7. Remove the sand-bags and gall from the terrapins.

  8. Cut off the toenails and head of the terrapins.

  9. Cut the remainder of the terrapins into pieces.

Make the stew

  1. In a saucepan, combine the terrapin pieces with allspice, ground mace, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and coarse sea salt.

  2. Let the mixture stand for 30 minutes.

  3. Add ¼ pound of butter in small bits.

  4. Add 1 quart of milk, mixing well.

  5. Heat the mixture on the stove until it simmers.

  6. Add ⅓ cup of flour rubbed smooth with ¼ pound of butter.

  7. Let it simmer for at least 30 minutes without boiling.

  8. Add ⅓ cup of sherry a few minutes before serving.

  9. Stir well.

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. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Allspice + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,302 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Terrapins
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender after long boiling and simmering.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the milk-based sauce.
Milk
Forms the creamy body of the stew and carries the seasonings.
Flour
Thickens the milk mixture into a smooth, body-rich sauce when simmered.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich, creamy stew.

The step that matters

Simmer without boiling. Milk-based sauces thickened with flour can scorch on the bottom or curdle and separate if they boil hard. Keeping the mixture at a gentle simmer keeps the sauce smooth and the flour fully cooked.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (allspice, pepper, butter, milk, flour, sherry):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against allspice, pepper, butter, milk, flour, sherry. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

More stewed terrapin recipes

with Cream 5 See all 45 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes