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Chicken Terrapin

Creamy chicken stew with sherry, eggs, and sweetbreads.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Shutt, William E., Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · 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 ↓

Chicken Terrapin

twelve persons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Boil a chicken, remove the skin, cut into small pieces.

Make the sauce

  1. Take a pint of cream and put it in a stewpan.

  2. Add one-fourth cup of butter and four tablespoons of flour.

  3. Season with pepper and salt, stir until it thickens.

  4. Add the chicken.

  5. Remove from the fire, add a glass of sherry wine and three hard-boiled eggs, chopped finely.

  6. Add one pair of sweetbreads, which are very nice.

Serve

  1. Put on the stove again and heat in the shells in which it is served.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

692Calories
20 gProtein
24 gFat
98 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Shutt, William E., Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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. See the original page.

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 + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Butter
Enriches the sauce with fat, giving it a rich, smooth mouthfeel.
Cream
Forms the body of the sauce and adds richness and a silky texture.
Flour
Thickens the cream into a sauce as it cooks.
Eggs
Add body and richness to the sauce once chopped and folded in.

The step that matters

Stir the sauce as it thickens. Flour thickens cream only as its starch swells with heat, and cooking too fast or without stirring can leave lumps or scorch the bottom. Keep stirring steadily until smooth and thickened.

“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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