Why it works: Cream and butter 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 ↓
Philadelphia Stewed Terrapin
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the terrapins
Put the terrapins alive into a pot of boiling water and boil for 10 to 15 minutes until you can remove the outer skin and toenails.
Return the terrapins to fresh boiling water.
Add 1 heaping teaspoon of salt and boil slowly until the shells part easily and the flesh is tender, about 1 to 1.5 hours.
Remove the terrapins from the pot.
Save ½ cup of the boiling liquid.
Take off the under shell.
Let it cool enough to handle.
Extract the meat from the upper shells.
Remove the sandbags, bladders, thick intestines, and gallbladder carefully to avoid breaking it.
Break the terrapin meat into pieces.
Make the stew
Add the liver, all the eggs, juices from cutting, and the saved boiling liquid.
In a china-lined saucepan over moderate heat, rub the flour with a small portion of butter to a cream.
Stir the cream into the terrapin mixture.
Rub the yolks of the eggs with salt, red pepper, remaining butter, and wine to a smooth paste.
Add the paste to the terrapin and mix well.
When hot, add the cream.
Serve immediately without boiling after adding the cream.
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.
-
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,505 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
-
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Terrapins
- Form the main body of the stew, providing the tender meat.
- Eggs
- Yolks enrich and thicken the stew, giving it a smooth, rich body.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and giving a silky mouthfeel.
- Flour
- Forms a roux with butter that thickens the stew.
- Thick cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture to the finished stew.
- Madeira or sherry
- Adds acidity and aromatic depth that balances the richness.
The step that matters
Add the cream without boiling afterwards. Egg yolks and cream can curdle or turn grainy if overheated after being added, so the stew should be kept hot but not boiled once the cream goes in.
“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.
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.