Stewed terrapin
(A Maryland recipe.)
Drop the “diamond-backs” into boiling water and cook until the heads and feet “skin off.” This should be in less than an hour. Let them get perfectly cold. Strip off the shells and extract the heart and entrails carefully, lest an incautious touch rupture the gall-bag and ruin everything. Cut off the head, tail and feet. Cut the meat up small with a sharp knife, put into a saucepan, cover with hot water and simmer fifteen minutes. Rub the yolks of half a dozen hard-boiled eggs to a powder and work in three tablespoonfuls of butter. Heat a cupful of cream in another vessel (with a pinch of soda) and work by degrees into the egg and butter, season with salt and cayenne and mix gradually with the hot terrapin. Cook one minute, add a glass of sherry and pour out.