Entree of Oyster-crabs

Ingredients

• one inch thick
• one inch smaller than the egg dish
• one inch wide
• one inch smaller than the egg dishes
• one layer of crabs in the center of each ring
• five pounds
• pepper
• salt

Directions

1. Use for this entree individual shirred-egg dishes. Cut slices of bread one inch thick; with a biscuit-cutter stamp it into circles one inch smaller than the egg dish, and with a smaller cutter stamp out the center, making rings of the bread one inch thick, one inch wide, and one inch smaller than the egg dishes. Place the bread rings in the dishes and moisten them with cream; fill the space outside the rings with oyster-crabs cooked as directed above; spread one layer of crabs in the center of each ring and on them break an egg. Cover the whole with Bechamel sauce and sprinkle the top with grated Parmesan cheese. Place this in a hot oven just long enough to set the egg.

2. TERRAPIN, FROGS' LEGS

3. [Sidenote: Counts.]

4. Terrapin measuring six inches or more across the bottom shell are called "counts." The largest do not exceed ten inches; the average size is seven inches, and weight three to five pounds. The counts vary in price from seventeen to eighty dollars a dozen, according to size and weight.

5. [Sidenote: Diamond backs.]

6. The terrapin which are most esteemed, and which command the highest price, are the "Diamond Back," from the Chesapeake Bay. Probably it is the wild celery of this region which gives the especially prized flavor to the terrapin as well as to the Canvasback ducks taken there. Good terrapin, however, are taken in Long Island waters and all along the sea-coast.

7. [Sidenote: Season.]

8. Terrapin burrow in the mud as soon as cold weather approaches and remain there until May, during which time they grow fat. They are caught during their season of hibernation, and are kept in cool, dark places packed in sea grass until wanted; the season for eating them being from December to April. Terrapin taken during the summer are rank in taste and unfit for food, and are confined in pens and fed on celery.

9. The female terrapin is the most prized on account of its eggs, terrapin-eggs, as served in the stew, being considered a great delicacy.

10. [Sidenote: Cooking.]

11. The Maryland style of cooking terrapin is one of the most esteemed. A simple way is that of the Southern negro, who places the "bird," as he calls it, over hot coals or in the oven until cooked, when the under shell comes off, and, removing only the gall, he eats the whole of the contents from the inverted upper shell, seasoning with butter, pepper, and salt. Before hibernating, the terrapin empties the stomach and is consequently clean, but a fastidious taste prefers to have the terrapin thoroughly washed, and the entrails and lights as well as the gall-sack removed.

12. [Sidenote: The gall.]

13. It is of the greatest importance that the gall should be very carefully removed, for, if the sack be punctured or in any way injured, so that the liquid touches the liver or meat, its disagreeable bitter taste will infect the entire dish.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

What these numbers assume: 4 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Crab	100g cooked	97
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.