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Mock Terrapin

A liver dish made with calf's liver, spices, eggs, butter, wine, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 the liver

  1. Wash the calf's liver and cut it into small pieces.

  2. Cook the liver in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. Sprinkle the liver with flour, mustard, cayenne, salt, and ground cloves.

  2. Stir the mixture and add the gravy from the liver and boiling water.

  3. Keep the mixture hot but not boiling.

Finish and serve

  1. Just before serving, add the chopped hard boiled eggs, butter, wine, and lemon juice.

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

Calf's liver
Forms the main body of the dish, giving it a meaty texture and rich flavor.
Flour
Thickens the cooking juices into a smooth, lightly bodied gravy.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished sauce.
Wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavor to the sauce.
Hard boiled eggs
Add body and a mild, creamy texture that mimics the traditional dish.

The step that matters

Keep the mixture hot but not boiling. Boiling can toughen the proteins in the eggs and liver and cause the flour-thickened sauce to break or turn grainy. Gentle heat keeps the texture smooth.

Swap the clove

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

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

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