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Terrapin a LA Newburg

Terrapin à la Newburg is a creamy terrapin dish flavored with egg yolks, Madeira or sherry, and seasoned with salt, pepper, and paprika.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,107 recipes. Both carry piperonal, which smells bitter, coconut. The science ↓

Terrapin a LA Newburg

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Heat the terrapin and 1 cup of cream in a double boiler or chafing dish until warmed through.

  2. Mix the egg yolks with the remaining ½ cup of cream in a bowl.

  3. Stir the egg yolk mixture into the terrapin and cream, cooking until it thickens.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, and paprika.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the Madeira or sherry just before serving.

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 + sherrytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

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

  3. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Egg + sherrytop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 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

Terrapin
Forms the main body of the dish, carried in a warm, creamy sauce.
Cream
Provides richness and moisture, forming the base of the sauce.
Egg yolks
Thicken the cream as they cook gently, giving the sauce body.
Madeira or sherry
Adds a sweet, aromatic flavour added at the end.

The step that matters

Stir the egg yolk mixture into the terrapin and cream, cooking until it thickens. Egg yolks set when heated, but if the mixture gets too hot or cooks too fast it can curdle. Heating gently over a double boiler, while stirring, keeps the sauce smooth.

“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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