Baked Terrapin

Cut off the head of a terrapin, put it in a saucepan or pot with the shell on, and let it boil until the under shell can be removed easily. Take it out, pull out all the meat, cleaning the upper shell thoroughly; pick the meat to pieces, and mix it up with a few crackers and chopped onions, a small quantity each of allspice, black pepper, chopped parsley and butter, and pour over a small quantity of wine. Put this mixture into the top shell, place a few slices of lemon on the top, set it in the oven and bake. When done take it out and serve.

Baked Terrapins, Maryland Style

Half fill a baking pan with dry gravel or sand, put it into an oven and make it quite hot; wash well three terrapins that have been killed, remove their heads, put them with the top shell downward in the sand and bake in the oven for an hour. Take them out, remove the under shell, gall bag and entrails and loosen the meat without taking it out of the back shell. Pull off the legs, skin them and lay them on the top. Put one breakfast cupful of butter in a basin to soften, mix in one teacupful of flour, one teaspoonful each of salt and black pepper and the juice of a lemon. Put a little more than one tablespoonful of this into each terrapin, place them back in the oven for a few minutes, take them out and serve on a napkin spread on a dish.

Fricassee Of Terrapin

Put the meat of two or three terrapins into a saucepan with a little butter and a bunch of parsley and sweet herbs; cook until it is slightly colored, sprinkle in salt and pepper to taste and one tablespoonful of flour and pour in gradually sufficient cream to cover. Boil for four minutes without stirring, then add one wine-glassful of sherry; boil again for ten minutes, take the saucepan from the fire, thicken with the beaten yolks of four eggs, remove the bunch of sweet herbs and parsley, add five ounces of butter broken up into small pieces, turn the whole out on to a dish and serve with minced parsley sprinkled over it.

Terrapin Steaks

Cut the meat of a terrapin into slices or steaks, sprinkle them over with salt and pepper, place a few lumps of butter on them and either fry them in a frying-pan or broil them on a gridiron. When done place them on a dish and serve very hot; or they may be dipped in butter before being salted and peppered, covered with melted breadcrumbs and then cooked.

Stewed Terrapins

Cut the flesh off some small terrapins in little pieces, and put them over the fire in a stewpan, together with a seasoning of pepper and salt, a little cayenne pepper and a small piece of butter. Let them stew in the butter for a short time, add one wineglassful of water for each terrapin, and put in at the same time a piece of butter rolled in flour; stew for ten minutes, then add for each terrapin one wineglassful of white wine, and let it stew for another five minutes; then move the pan to the side of the fire, and stir in some beaten yolks of eggs, allowing one yolk to two terrapins. Cover the pan tightly and let it stand for five or six minutes. Then pour the terrapins, sauce and all, into a tureen and serve.

Stewed Terrapin, Baltimore Style

Prepare two medium sized terrapins. Make one pint or so of mirepoix sauce, add to it one tablespoonful of flour and bake for fifteen minutes; moisten with one wineglassful of Madeira wine and one breakfast cupful of strong broth. Stir constantly, season with a small pinch of salt and a very little cayenne pepper, and reduce the liquor to half its original quantity. Cut the terrapins into small pieces, throwing the ends of the claws away; place the pieces in a stewpan, straining the sauce over them and finish with one ounce of fresh butter, also the juice of a lemon. Then dish up and serve.

Stewed Terrapin, Maryland Style

Carefully cut up two terrapins, place them in a saucepan with one wineglassful of good Madeira wine, a small pinch of salt, a little cayenne pepper, and an ounce or two of good butter. Mix thoroughly one breakfast cupful of sweet cream with the yolks of three boiled eggs, and add it to the terrapin, stirring continually while thoroughly heating, but without letting it come to a boil Turn the whole into a tureen, and serve it very hot.

Vol-Au-Vent Of Terrapin

Put one breakfast cupful of terrapin stock into a saucepan with two or three cloves and a little mace or parsley, and boil it up; add one tablespoonful of browned flour mixed up with an equal amount of butter to thicken it, pour in one wineglassful of sherry wine, and strain the liquor into another saucepan. Add two breakfast cupfuls of terrapin meat cut up into small pieces, sprinkle on a little salt and cayenne, simmer gently at the side of the fire until the preparation is done. Have in readiness eight vol-au-vent cases lined with puff paste and baked, fill them with the terrapin mixture, and serve on a folded napkin spread over a dish.