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Diamond-back or Salt-water Terrapin

A boiled diamond-back terrapin, skin removed and internal organs discarded.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Diamond-back or Salt-water Terrapin

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Plunge the terrapin head first into a kettle of boiling water.

  2. Add salt and cover the kettle; cook for 15 minutes.

  3. Remove the terrapin from the kettle.

Clean

  1. Take off the black skin from the shell and the nails from the claws.

  2. Wash the terrapin thoroughly in warm water.

  3. Remove the shells.

  4. Take out the dark green gall bladder.

  5. Take out the sand bag.

  6. Take out the entrails.

  7. Remove the head.

  8. Preserve any eggs if present.

  9. Keep all pieces of meat, fat, and legs in water until ready to use.

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

Terrapin
Provides the main body of meat and fat that is cleaned and cooked.

The step that matters

Take out the gall bladder without breaking it. The dark green gall bladder is bitter and can taint the surrounding meat if it is punctured, so it should be removed whole and carefully.

“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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