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Stewed Terrapin

A stew of terrapin meat cooked with spices, butter, milk, flour, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Stewed Terrapin

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the terrapin

  1. Place terrapins in hot water for 2 minutes.

  2. Remove terrapins and rub off outer skin from legs and neck.

  3. Return terrapins to kettle and boil until shell removed, about 1.5‑2 hours.

  4. Open shell, remove sand‑bags and gall, cut off toenails and head, chop remaining meat.

  5. In saucepan, combine chopped meat with allspice, mace, black pepper, cayenne, and salt.

  6. Let mixture sit for 30 minutes.

Make the stew

  1. Add ¼ pound butter in small pieces and 1 quart milk.

  2. Heat mixture on stove.

  3. When it simmers, mix in 2 tablespoons flour rubbed smooth with remaining butter. Stir well.

  4. Let simmer for at least 30 minutes without boiling.

  5. Just before serving, add 1 cup sherry and stir well.

  6. Serve immediately.

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. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Allspice + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,302 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

Terrapins
Provide the main meat, which is cooked until tender and then chopped into the stew.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the milk-based stew.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid base of the stew.
Flour
Thickens the milk and butter mixture into a smooth, body-rich sauce.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic depth just before serving.

The step that matters

Adding the flour mixture. Flour must be rubbed smooth with butter and stirred in while the liquid is simmering so it disperses evenly without lumps. Then the stew must simmer gently without boiling, because a hard boil can break the milk and scorch the bottom, leaving the thickened sauce grainy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (allspice, pepper, butter, milk, flour, sherry):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against allspice, pepper, butter, milk, flour, sherry. 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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