Take 31⁄2 pounds lean beef chopped small; six soda crackers rolled fine; 3 eggs well beaten; 4 tablespoonfuls sweet cream; butter size of an egg; 11⁄2 tablespoonfuls salt, and one of pepper. Mix thoroughly, make into a loaf, and bake two hours, basting as you would roast beef.
Fried Oysters.
Take the largest-sized oysters; drain off the juice, and dry in a cloth; beat two eggs in a spoonful of milk, adding a little salt and pepper. Run the oysters through this, and fry in equal parts butter and sweet lard to a light brown.
STEWS, SALADS and SALAD DRESSING.
Terrapin Stew.
Take six terrapins of uniform size. (The females, which are the best, may be distinguished by the lower shell being level or slightly projecting.) If the terrapins are large, use one pound of the best butter; if small, less, and a pint of good sherry wine. After washing the terrapins in warm water, put them in the kettle alive, and cover with cold water, keeping the vessel covered tight. After letting them boil until the shell cracks and you can crush the claws with the thumb and finger, take them off the fire, and when cool enough, pull off the shell and remove the dark, or scarf skin, next pulling the meat from the trail and the liver—being careful not to break the gall, which would render the liver uneatable. After breaking the meat in small pieces, lay it in a porcelain kettle with a teacupful of water; put in the wine, and one-half the butter, with 2 or 3 blades of mace, 2 or 3 teaspoonfuls of extract of lemon, 2 tablespoonfuls of Worcestershire or Challenge sauce; little salt is required, and if pepper is needed, use cayenne. After stewing for fifteen minutes, add the yolks of 6 hard-boiled eggs—worked to a paste in the remainder of the butter—thinning with the juice of the stew, adding at the same time a teacupful of sweet cream, and after simmering for three minutes, chop the whites of the eggs fine, and add to the mixture; then take from the fire, and make hot five minutes before serving. If kept in a cool place this stew will remain perfectly good for three days.