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Shell-fish

Stewed terrapin meat and eggs in butter, served with a Madeira and currant jelly sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Shell-fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the terrapin

  1. Cook the terrapin for 10 to 15 minutes.

  2. Remove the shell.

  3. Extract the meat, discarding the sand-bag, gall, and entrails.

  4. Cut the meat into pieces.

Stew and make the sauce

  1. Place the meat and eggs in a saucepan with enough fresh butter to stew well.

  2. Cover the pan and heat until hot throughout, shaking it occasionally to retain flavor.

  3. In another pan, combine the beaten egg yolk, Madeira or sherry, nutmeg, mace, currant jelly, cayenne pepper, and salt.

  4. Add a large lump of fresh butter and stir the sauce over heat until it almost boils, then remove from heat.

Serve

  1. Serve the terrapins hot in a covered dish with the sauce separately in a sauce tureen.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Sherry + curranttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together393 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Mace + curranttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,791 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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 and provides its savory, meaty flavor.
Terrapin eggs
Enrich the stew and add richness and body as they heat in the butter.
Fresh butter
Carries the heat and adds richness, keeping the meat moist while it stews.
1 beaten egg yolk
Thickens the sauce gently and adds richness and a smooth texture.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and fruity tartness that balances the rich sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring the sauce until it almost boils. Egg yolk thickens when gently heated but can curdle and turn grainy if it boils, so the sauce should be stirred over heat and removed just before boiling.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Plumfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, egg, butter, sherry, nutmeg, mace, pepper. 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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