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Terrapins

A stew made from boiled terrapins, butter, sherry or Madeira, spices, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,430 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Terrapins

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the terrapins

  1. Boil the terrapins in water for 10 minutes.

  2. Remove them and rub off the skin from the head, neck, and claws with a coarse cloth.

  3. Boil the cleaned terrapins in fresh water with a little salt until the claws are soft, which may take up to 3 hours.

  4. Carefully open the terrapins and remove the sand-bag, spongy part, and gall without breaking them.

  5. Cut the remaining meat into small pieces and place in a stew pan.

Make the stew

  1. Add ½ cup of butter, ⅓ cup of Sherry or Madeira wine, salt, black pepper, red pepper, and mustard to taste.

  2. Mash the yolks of 2 hard boiled eggs with a little butter and mix into the stew.

  3. Cook the mixture for 15 minutes and serve hot.

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. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  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. Sherry + mustardtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together304 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 the claws are tender.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the stew a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.
Sherry or madeira wine
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the stew's flavour.
Hard boiled egg yolks
Mashed into the stew to thicken it and add richness.

The step that matters

Boil the terrapins until the claws are soft. Terrapin meat and connective tissue toughen if undercooked, and the claws only become tender after long, gentle simmering. Judge doneness by tenderness, not by the clock, since the record notes it may take up to 3 hours.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sherry, pepper, 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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