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Mock Terrapin

A stew of duck, calf liver, and vegetables, thickened with cream and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mock Terrapin

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Clean the ducks.

  2. Place the ducks, liver, and seasonings in boiling water.

  3. Cook slowly until tender.

  4. Remove from the kettle and let cool.

  5. Cut the ducks and liver into small dice.

Make the sauce

  1. Mash the hard-boiled yolks into a smooth paste.

  2. Gradually add the thick cream to the egg yolks.

  3. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  4. Add the flour and milk, and stir until smooth.

  5. Gradually stir in the egg yolk and cream mixture.

  6. Stir constantly until it reaches boiling point.

  7. Season with salt and pepper.

Combine and serve

  1. Add the diced meat.

  2. Heat through.

  3. Serve.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  3. Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Ducks
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender through slow cooking and is diced for the dish.
Calf's liver
Adds a rich, meaty flavour and body to the diced meat mixture.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Mashed to a paste and blended into the cream, giving the sauce a smooth, rich texture.
Thick cream
Adds richness and moisture, and thickens with the yolks to form a creamy sauce.
Butter
Provides fat for the roux, adding richness and flavour to the sauce base.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk mixture so the sauce becomes smooth and body-rich.

The step that matters

Stirring the sauce to boiling. Stirring constantly while the flour-thickened milk mixture comes to a boil keeps starch granules dispersed, preventing lumps and scorching on the base of the pan. Adding the yolk and cream mixture gradually prevents the egg from curdling.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, onion, celery, parsley, egg, cream, butter):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, onion, celery, parsley, egg, 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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