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Maryland Terrapins

A stew of Maryland terrapins simmered with butter, flour, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Maryland Terrapins

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the terrapins

  1. Wash the terrapins in warm water.

  2. Boil the terrapins in a pot of water until the shells crack.

  3. Remove the bottom shell and cut each quarter separately.

  4. Take out the gall from the liver and remove the eggs.

Stew and serve

  1. Place the pieces in a saucepan, add the liquor, and cover with water.

  2. Season with salt, cayenne, black pepper, and a little mace.

  3. Add a little butter.

  4. Let them stew for 30 minutes.

  5. Just before serving, stir in a little flour to thicken.

  6. Drop the eggs in just as you serve it.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Pepper + flourtop 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

Terrapins
Provide the main meat of the stew, which becomes tender through long simmering.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the stew's broth.
Flour
Thickens the stew's liquid into a smooth, lightly body-filled sauce.
Eggs
Add richness and a soft, set texture when dropped into the hot stew.

The step that matters

Stirring in the flour just before serving. Flour thickens by swelling in hot liquid, so adding it at the end and stirring well prevents lumps and a pasty or raw-tasting sauce.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

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