🤢 Frankly Gross 1913

Terrapin, a la Maryland

Boil the terrapin whole, draw the nails from its feet, and leave the liver and intestines in the dish.

From: The Story of Crisco
Published: 1913
Also printed in: 3 other books
Yikes Scale: Big yikes

Exactly as printed, 1913

Menu: Terrapin, a la Maryland; Saratoga Chips; Roasted Capon, Oyster Sauce; Sweet Potatoes; Stewed Celery; Apple and Cabbage Salad; Hamburg Cream; Coffee Terrapin, a la Maryland-Put terrapin in kettle, cover with boiling salted water, add 2 slices each carrot and onion, and 1 stalk celery. Cook till meat is tender. Remove from water, cool, draw out nails from feet, cut under shell close to upper shell and remove. Empty upper shell, remove and discard gall bladder, sand bags and thick intestines. Liver, small intestines are used with meat. Add terrapin meat to 3/4 cup white stock, 2 tablespoons wine; cook slowly until liquor is reduced half. Add liver separated in pieces, 2 yolks of eggs, 1 tablespoon Crisco, salt, pepper, and red pepper to taste, 1 tablespoon flour mixed with 1/2 cup cream, and 1 teaspoon lemon juice. Make hot and just before serving add 1 tablespoon sherry wine. Turn into hot dish and garnish with toast points. and 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Cook in moderate oven for 3 hours. Send to table without removing cover.

The Story of Crisco, 1913. Public domain; transcription unaltered.

So what happens if I make it?

The diamondback terrapin is the terrapin of Maryland cookery, and commercial harvest is now prohibited. It was eaten close to extinction precisely because of dishes like this one.

Wild-caught turtles routinely carry salmonella. The animal is boiled before it is dressed, but the dressing itself — drawing the liver and intestines by hand — happens after, in a kitchen.

Notes from the 21st century

It was a luxury, not a country dish. Terrapin was a status food on grand American menus for decades, which is what drove the population collapse.
The sand bags come out, the intestines stay. The recipe is careful about the gall bladder, which would make it bitter, and unbothered by the rest.
This one comes from a shortening advert. The Story of Crisco is a brand book with a full menu section. Terrapin sits in a December dinner between capon and Hamburg cream.

Also in this book

Veal Chops (forcemeat-coated) — Seared deliberately without cooking through, coated in raw pork and raw yolk, then ten minutes in the oven.

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