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Stewed Terrapin

A stew of terrapin meat simmered with spices, butter, milk, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 terrapin

  1. Put two terrapins in hot water for two minutes, then remove and rub off the outer skin from the legs and neck.

  2. Return the terrapins to the kettle and boil until they can be easily removed from the shell, about 1.5 to 2 hours.

  3. Open the shell at the side, remove the sand-bags and gall, cut off the toenails and head, then cut the remainder into pieces.

Stew and serve

  1. In a saucepan, combine the terrapin pieces with allspice, ground mace, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and coarse sea salt. Let it stand for 30 minutes.

  2. Add ¼ pound of butter in small bits and 1 quart of milk, then mix well and simmer without boiling for at least 30 minutes.

  3. A few minutes before serving, add ⅓ cup of sherry and stir well before serving.

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

Terrapin
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long boiling and gentle simmering.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the milk-based sauce.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid base that the meat simmers in.
Flour
Thickens the milk-based liquid into a body that clings to the meat.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic depth that brightens the rich, creamy stew.

The step that matters

Simmer without boiling. Milk can curdle, scorch, or turn grainy when boiled hard, so it should be held at a gentle simmer for the full time.

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.

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