Terrapin, Epicurean Style

The diamond-back Chesapeake, Maryland terrapins are considered the best. They must be freshly caught. Long Island terrapins are also much liked by epicures, some averring that they are as fine as the Chesapeake, but this is not a fact, and I do not hesitate to class them according to the following order: First, the Chesapeake, then the Long Island, Virginia, Charleston and Savannah, North Carolina, Florida, Mississippi and Texas, the Gulf, Mobile, etc. Take two terrapins, each one of three pounds weight, and prepare them as described in No. 1082. Fry in two ounces of butter, adding two ounces of rice flour well mingled in; moisten with water as high as the terrapin and let boil until thoroughly cooked, seasoning with salt and pepper; add a pint of cream and reduce; finish with three hard-boiled egg-yolks, pounded and formed into a paste with three tablespoonfuls of good sherry wine. Serve separately on a folded napkin some very small oysters, drained and rolled in cracker dust, then fried in butter; surround these with quartered lemons.

TURTLE (Tortue).

An amphibious quadruped, having all its body, except the head, feet, and tail, covered with a very hard shell. It is enclosed in a cuirass composed of two pieces; the one covering the back is called the carapace; this is convex shaped; the vertebra are attached to it. The underneath one is attached to the breast; this is flat and is called the plastron. The choicest and most delicate part of the turtle is that attached to the upper shell.