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Stewed Water Turtles, or Terrapins

Stewed water turtle meat with butter, Madeira or sherry, currant jelly, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Stewed Water Turtles, or Terrapins

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the terrapins

  1. Wash the terrapins.

  2. Place them alive in boiling water with a little coarse sea salt, and boil for 10 to 15 minutes until thoroughly cooked.

  3. Remove the shells and extract the meat.

  4. Discard the sand-bag, gall, and entrails.

  5. Cut the meat into pieces.

Stew and make the sauce

  1. Place the meat in a stew pan with its eggs and sufficient fresh butter. Cover and stew until hot throughout, shaking the pan occasionally.

  2. In another pan, combine the beaten yolk of egg, Madeira or sherry, nutmeg, mace, currant jelly, cayenne pepper, and salt.

  3. Add a large lump of fresh butter.

  4. Stir the sauce over the fire until it almost boils, then remove from heat.

Serve

  1. Serve the terrapins hot in a covered dish with the sauce on the side.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

  3. Sherry + curranttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together393 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Mace + curranttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,791 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 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
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender through boiling and gentle stewing.
Fresh butter
Adds richness and moisture, helping the meat stay tender and the sauce smooth.
Beaten egg yolk
Thickens the sauce as it gently heats, giving it a smooth, creamy body.
Madeira or sherry
Adds acidity and fortified wine aroma that give the sauce depth.
Currant jelly
Contributes sweetness and fruity body that balances the wine and spices.

The step that matters

Stir the sauce until it almost boils. Egg yolk thickens as it heats, but if it gets too hot it can scramble and turn grainy. Stirring over gentle heat keeps the sauce smooth and creamy.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, sherry, nutmeg, mace, pepper):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Plumfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, sherry, nutmeg, mace, pepper. 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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