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Stewed Terrapin

A stew of terrapin meat, blood, and cream simmered with spices and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Brandy and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,209 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Stewed Terrapin

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the terrapins

  1. Plunge the terrapins into boiling water until the sides and lower shell begin to crack, about 1 hour.

  2. Remove the terrapins and let them cool.

  3. Carefully take off the shell and outer skin, saving as much blood as possible.

  4. Remove the gall from the liver to avoid bitterness.

  5. Cut the liver and the rest of the terrapin into small pieces.

Make the stew

  1. Add the saved blood and juice.

  2. Add ½ pint of water.

  3. Sprinkle flour over the mixture in a stew-pan.

  4. Stew slowly for 10 minutes.

  5. Add salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and a small blade of mace.

  6. Stir in ⅓ cup of brandy.

  7. Stir in ½ pint of sherry wine.

  8. Let it simmer gently.

  9. Add ½ pint of rich cream.

  10. Add ½ pound of sweet butter.

  11. Mix in flour to prevent boiling.

Add the eggs

  1. If there are terrapin eggs, peel them carefully and add them whole.

  2. If not, use the yolks of hard-boiled hens' eggs.

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. Brandy + sherrytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

  3. Brandy + winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,427 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

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

Flour and butter 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, with the liver and blood adding richness to the stew.
Sweet butter
Adds fat and a silky, rounded texture to the finished stew.
Rich cream
Adds fat and body, softening the stew into a smooth, rich texture.
Sherry wine
Adds acidity and aroma that balance the richness of the cream and butter.
Flour
Thickens the stew so the liquid holds together and does not run thin.

The step that matters

Mix in flour to prevent boiling. Flour stirred into cream-rich liquid helps stabilise it and thicken the sauce, so it is less likely to separate or boil hard. Keep the heat gentle once cream and butter are in.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, pepper, brandy, sherry, wine, cream, butter):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, pepper, brandy, sherry, wine, 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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