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Mock Terrapin

A liver dish flavored with mustard, cayenne pepper, eggs, and butter, simmered and served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,430 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mock Terrapin

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liver

  1. Season and fry the calf's liver until browned.

  2. Finely hash the liver and dust it thickly with flour.

Make the sauce

  1. In a pan, mix the mustard, cayenne pepper, chopped hard boiled eggs, butter, and water. Let the mixture cook for a few minutes.

  2. Add the chopped liver and simmer together for a few minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve hot, adding a little wine if desired.

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. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 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

Calf's liver
Provides the main body and rich, meaty flavour of the dish.
Flour
Dusting the liver helps it brown and lightly thickens the mixture as it cooks.
Hard boiled eggs
Chopped eggs add body and a creamy texture to the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and giving a smooth mouthfeel.
Mustard
Contributes sharp acidity and tang that balances the richness of the liver and butter.

The step that matters

Dusting the liver with flour. Flour coats the pieces so they brown rather than steam, and it thickens the simmering mixture. Thick dusting that is not evenly coated can leave floury lumps or pale, soggy spots.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, pepper, egg, butter, flour, wine):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, pepper, egg, butter, flour, wine. 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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