Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Fish and Shell Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the turtle
Plunge the turtle into a pot of boiling water for 5 minutes.
Skin the under part and remove the horny parts of the feet.
Soak the turtle in cold salt water for 10 minutes.
Boil in hot salted water until tender, depending on size and age.
Drain and wipe the turtle dry, then carefully loosen the shell without breaking the flesh.
Cut open the shell carefully, avoiding the gall-bag, and remove it along with the entrails and sand-bag.
Make the stew
Cut the remaining meat into small pieces and season with pepper, salt, onion, sweet herbs, and spiced sauce or catsup.
Save the juice from the meat and combine everything in a saucepan with a tight-fitting lid.
Stew gently for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Thicken and finish
Add butter or browned flour mixed with cold water, sherry, and the beaten egg yolk mixed with a little hot liquid to prevent curdling.
Boil once and transfer to a covered dish.
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.
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Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,505 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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
- Turtle
- Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long boiling and stewing.
- Butter or browned flour
- Thickens the stew and adds richness and a toasted flavour.
- Egg yolk
- Enriches and thickens the sauce, giving it a smoother body.
- Brown sherry
- Adds depth and a sweet, nutty aroma to the sauce.
- Chopped onion
- Adds savoury aromatic flavour as the stew cooks.
The step that matters
Adding the egg yolk. Egg yolk can curdle when it meets very hot liquid. Mixing it first with a little hot liquid gently raises its temperature, so it blends smoothly and thickens the sauce without becoming grainy.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, sauce, butter, sherry, egg):
- Capsicumfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, sauce, butter, sherry, egg. 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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