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Terrapin a LA Baltimore

Terrapin à la Baltimore is a terrapin dish cooked with butter, eggs, cream, sherry, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream 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 ↓

Terrapin a LA Baltimore

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the terrapin

  1. Cut off the head of the terrapin.

  2. Place the terrapin in boiling water for 15–20 minutes.

  3. Remove the terrapin.

  4. Pull out the little toe-nails and as much black skin as possible.

  5. Return the terrapin to boiling water.

  6. Cook for 30–45 minutes, depending on its size.

  7. Remove the terrapin.

  8. Take off the shell.

  9. Discard the entrails, saving the juice.

  10. Shred the meat finely.

Make the gravy

  1. Place the shredded meat in a frying pan with the saved juice and butter.

  2. Heat thoroughly.

  3. Add the terrapin eggs (if any) or the smooth yolks of hard-boiled eggs.

  4. Season with pepper, coarse sea salt, and cayenne pepper.

  5. Add enough rich cream to create a gravy.

  6. Stir in ¼ to ½ pint of sherry wine.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately, garnished with chopped whites of hard-boiled eggs.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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, with its meat providing the substance of the stew.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour through the shredded meat and gravy.
Hard boiled eggs
Yolks thicken the gravy and add a rich, creamy texture; whites serve as garnish.
Rich cream
Adds moisture and fat, turning the mixture into a smooth gravy.
Sherry wine
Adds acidity and aroma, rounding out the flavour of the gravy.

The step that matters

Cooking the terrapin until tender. Cooking time must match the animal's size; undercooked meat stays tough and chewy, while overcooking makes it dry and stringy. Removing the skin and nails at the right point keeps the flavour clean.

“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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