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Chicken Terrapin

A baked chicken dish with mushrooms, brains, milk, flour, eggs, butter, spices, and toasted topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Chicken Terrapin

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the parts

  1. Boil the chicken until tender and cut it into pieces.

  2. Stew the mushrooms for about 15 minutes.

  3. Boil the brains until just done and cut them up.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, bring the milk to a boil.

  2. Mix the flour with a little cold milk until smooth.

  3. Add the flour mixture to the boiling milk.

  4. Stir in the raw egg yolks, butter, mace, and parsley.

Bake and serve

  1. Combine the chicken, brains, and mushrooms in a baking dish.

  2. Pour the milk mixture over the chicken.

  3. Mix the contents well.

  4. Season with salt, cayenne pepper, and nutmeg.

  5. Add the sherry and mix again.

  6. Top with grated toast.

  7. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

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

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

  3. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Mushroom + parsleytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Mushroom + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,231 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main meaty body of the dish, cooked tender before baking.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the sauce that coats the chicken and mushrooms.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that holds the filling together.
Raw egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the sauce, giving it richness and a custard-like set when baked.
Butter
Adds fat and rich flavour to the sauce.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and a tender, moist texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg yolks into the sauce. Raw yolks can scramble if the milk is too hot or added too fast. Stir them in gently off the heat or with the sauce just below boiling, so the sauce stays smooth and thickens evenly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, mushroom, milk, flour, egg, butter, parsley):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, mushroom, milk, flour, egg, butter, parsley. 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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