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To Dress Terrapin

A method for preparing a live terrapin by boiling, removing shells, and separating meat and fat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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To Dress Terrapin

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the terrapin

  1. Drop the live terrapin into a pot of boiling water for 15 minutes.

  2. Remove the bottom shell by chipping through the thinnest part with a stout knife.

  3. Pour out the water inside the shell.

  4. Save the blood that collects.

Clean and portion

  1. Remove the gall.

  2. Remove the entrail without breaking them.

  3. Loosen the meat from the back shell.

  4. Cut through the spine bone.

  5. Empty the meat into a pan.

  6. Discard the heads with the shells for soup.

  7. Separate the hind and fore feet into four pieces.

  8. Trim off the claws.

  9. Scrape off the thin outer skin.

  10. Collect the rich fat from the shoulder joints of females.

  11. Set aside the fat.

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

The step that matters

Removing the gall. The gall is a bitter digestive fluid stored near the liver; if it is broken during cleaning, its bitterness can spread into the meat, so it must be removed carefully and 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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