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Stewed Terrapin

Stewed terrapin is a dish of boiled terrapin meat simmered with egg yolk, butter, cream, spices, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Stewed Terrapin

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the terrapins

  1. Drop the terrapins into half-boiling water to kill them.

  2. Cook the terrapins for 1 hour or until the skin comes off easily.

  3. Let them cool completely, then remove shells, intestines, livers, heads, hearts, tails, and feet, being careful not to break the gall-bag.

  4. Cut the meat into dice, place in a saucepan, and cover with water. Bring to a boil and stew for 15 minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. Rub the yolk of one hard-boiled egg for each terrapin into a powder, then mix with butter to form a paste.

  2. Heat 3 tablespoons of cream in a saucepan for each terrapin, adding a pinch of baking soda.

  3. Gradually pour the heated cream onto the egg-and-butter paste, seasoning with paprika or cayenne, salt, and nutmeg or mace.

Combine and serve

  1. Stir this mixture into the stewed terrapin and cook for 2 minutes or until scalding hot.

  2. Add 1 teaspoon of sherry for each terrapin and serve hot 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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Nutmeg + sherrytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,246 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Terrapins
Provide the meat that is stewed and forms the body of the dish.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Form a powdered, rich paste that thickens and enriches the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and smooth mouthfeel to the egg yolk paste.
Cream
Supplies liquid and richness that give the sauce a smooth, velvety texture.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich, creamy flavour.

The step that matters

Gradually pour the heated cream onto the egg-and-butter paste. Adding hot cream slowly and stirring keeps the egg yolk from clumping or scrambling, so the sauce stays smooth when it joins the stew.

“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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