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Terrapins

A stew of terrapin meat simmered with butter, flour, cream, Madeira, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Terrapins

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the terrapins

  1. Put the terrapins alive in a pot of boiling water until they are dead.

  2. Remove their outer skin and toe-nails, then wash in warm water.

  3. Boil again until tender, adding a handful of salt to the water.

  4. Remove the shells and clean the terrapins, discarding the sand-bag and gall.

  5. Cut the meat and entrails into small pieces and place in a saucepan.

  6. Add the juices from cutting, season with salt, cayenne, and black pepper.

Make the soup

  1. Add ¼ pound of butter and a handful of flour for thickening.

  2. Stir for a short time, then add 4-5 tablespoons of cream and ½ pint of Madeira.

  3. Serve hot in a deep dish.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

Terrapins
Provide the meat that forms the body of the soup.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour through the soup.
Flour
Thickens the liquid so the soup becomes body-rich rather than watery.
Cream
Adds smoothness and mellows the seasoning for a rounder texture.
Madeira
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Adding the flour to the butter. Flour must be cooked briefly in fat before liquid goes in; if it is added raw or left unstirred it clumps and tastes floury, so stir it smooth before adding cream and Madeira.

“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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