Skip to main content
Main

Stewed Terrapin

A stew of terrapin meat cooked with butter, cream, sherry, water, egg yolks, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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. Cut off the heads of the terrapins.

  2. Soak the terrapins in cold water for 30 minutes.

  3. Boil the terrapins in water for 10 minutes.

  4. Cool the terrapins in cold water.

  5. Clean the terrapins by removing the nails and black skin from the legs.

  6. Cook the cleaned terrapins in boiling water until the flesh is tender.

  7. Remove the undershell of each terrapin.

  8. Carefully extract the liver and gall, avoiding breaking the gall.

  9. Chop the meat finely, saving any liquid from the shells.

Make the stew

  1. In a pot, melt the butter.

  2. Add the cream, sherry, water, and seasonings to the pot.

  3. Stir in the egg yolks and the chopped terrapin meat.

  4. Cook until heated through.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Sherry + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  5. Cream + sherrytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Terrapin meat
Forms the main body of the stew, giving it its substance and tender texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the cream mixture as they heat, giving the stew a smooth, rich body.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, producing a smooth, silky sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and rich flavor to the base of the stew.
Sherry or madeira
Adds aromatic depth and a touch of acidity and sweetness to the sauce.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg yolks and keep the heat gentle. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat. If the mixture boils or gets too hot, the proteins scramble and the stew turns grainy instead of smooth and creamy.

“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.

More stewed terrapin recipes

with Cream 5 See all 45 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes