The Cook Book, by "Oscar" of the Waldorf

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 suflicient cream to cover. Boil for four minutes without stirring, then add one wineglassful 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 fr}*ingpan 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 ]>epper and a small piece of butter. Let them stew in the butter for a short time, add one wincglassful 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.