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Soup

Mock Terrapin Soup

A soup made with beef, milk, wine, butter, mustard, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Mock Terrapin Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a stew pan, combine the beef, milk, wine, butter, mustard, and nutmeg.

  2. Cook over medium heat for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 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. Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

Beef
Provides the meaty body and substance that make the soup filling.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the soup and adds richness and mild sweetness.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and the flour coating helps thicken the soup as it heats.
Wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the soup.
Mustard
Contributes sharp, pungent flavour that balances the richness of the milk and butter.

The step that matters

Stirring while the soup cooks. Milk can scorch or form a skin on the bottom of the pan over medium heat. Stirring keeps the milk proteins and flour evenly dispersed, prevents sticking, and helps the butter-flour mixture thicken the soup smoothly.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, milk, wine, egg, butter, flour, nutmeg):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, milk, wine, egg, butter, flour, nutmeg. 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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