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To Prepare Terrapin

A stew made from terrapin meat, eggs, and liver, cooked in boiling water until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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To Prepare Terrapin

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the terrapin

  1. Drop the live terrapin into boiling water and let it cook for 20 minutes.

  2. Remove the skin from the head and feet by rubbing with a cloth, then wash the head and feet in several waters.

  3. Put the terrapin into fresh boiling water and cook until tender, about 1 hour.

  4. Check tenderness by pressing the feet between your fingers; if not tender, they may be tough.

  5. Once tender, remove from heat and let cool.

Clean and cut

  1. Cut off the nails and carefully remove the shells.

  2. Take out the gall sacks from the liver, ensuring they do not break.

  3. Remove the entrails, lights, heart, head, tail, and white muscles.

  4. Separate the pieces from the joints and cut the meat into 1.5‑inch pieces.

Make the stew

  1. Place the meat, terrapin eggs, and liver in a stew pan, cover with boiling water, and boil until the meat is ready to drop from the bones.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Live terrapin
Provides the meat that becomes the body of the stew.
Terrapin eggs
Add richness and a soft, custard-like texture when cooked.
Liver (in the method)
Adds deep, savoury flavour and body to the stew.

The step that matters

Removing the gall sacks from the liver. The gall sacks are bitter and can taint the liver and surrounding meat if they break, so they must be removed whole.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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