Skip to main content
Main

Mock Terrapin

A stew of diced meat and liver with flour, mustard, spices, and wine, finished with eggs, butter, and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Mock Terrapin

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Bake the liver for 30 minutes and reserve the gravy.

  3. Slice the liver into ½‑inch thick pieces, then cut into small dice.

  4. In a bowl, combine the meat, liver, flour, mustard, cayenne, and cloves.

Cook and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to a stewpan with the reserved gravy and boiling water.

  2. Cover and keep on low heat, ensuring it stays hot but does not boil.

  3. Just before serving, stir in the chopped eggs, butter, and wine or cider.

  4. Serve with a cut lemon.

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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Mustard + clovetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,829 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Meat
Provides the bulk and chewy, meaty body of the dish.
Fresh liver
Adds rich, savory flavor and a firmer, dense texture to the mixture.
Flour
Thickens the gravy and helps bind the mixture into a cohesive texture.
Hard boiled eggs
Adds richness and a soft, creamy texture to the finished dish.
Butter
Contributes fat for richness and a smooth, glossy mouthfeel.
Wine or cider
Adds acidity and fruity aroma that brightens the rich flavors.

The step that matters

Keep the mixture hot without boiling. Boiling can toughen the meat and liver proteins and cause the sauce to break or reduce unevenly. Gentle low heat keeps the texture tender and the sauce smooth.

Swap the clove

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, liver, flour, mustard, pepper, egg, 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.

More mock terrapin recipes

Soup 8 See all 44 →

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesMeat CroquettesMeat Croquettes52 recipesMeatballsMeatballs37 recipesMince MeatMince Meat37 recipes