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Mock Terrapin

A dish of diced duck and calf's liver in a creamy sauce with egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mock Terrapin

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the meat

  1. Clean the ducks and place them in boiling water with the liver and seasonings.

  2. Cook slowly until tender, then remove from the kettle and let cool.

  3. Cut the ducks and liver into dice.

Make the sauce

  1. Mash the hard-boiled yolks into a smooth paste.

  2. Gradually add the thick cream to the egg yolks.

  3. Melt the butter in a saucepan, then add the flour and milk, stirring until smooth.

  4. Gradually stir in the egg yolk and cream mixture, stirring constantly until it reaches boiling point.

Finish and serve

  1. Season with salt and pepper, then add the diced meat, heat through, and serve.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

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

  3. Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Duck
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through slow simmering.
Calf’s liver
Adds a rich, deep flavour and a soft texture to the diced meat.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Mashed and blended with cream to form a smooth, thick, rich base.
Thick cream
Adds richness and body to the sauce, giving it a smooth texture.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour to the roux that begins the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the sauce when cooked with butter and milk.

The step that matters

Gradually stir in the egg yolk and cream mixture. Adding the yolk mixture slowly and stirring constantly keeps it smooth. Egg proteins set with heat and can curdle or become grainy if they meet hot liquid too quickly.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, onion, celery, parsley, egg, cream, butter):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, onion, celery, parsley, egg, cream, butter. 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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