Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-02-25
Written for The Evening Star.
TERRAPIN LORE.

A<AA Az AonCs
How the Turtles Are Caught and How Best
to Cook Them.
The terrapin 10 the smallest Of the salt water
turtles and the most delicate II measures
when fully grown about seven inches across the
under shell and is about ten or eleven inches
long. Its habitat IL along the eastern coast Of
North America. OF the several varieties Of
terrapin that known A. diamond back" from
the resemblance in shape Of the scales Of its
upper shell to lozenge or diamond, is the
best favored and most famous. This variety Ia
found along the shores Of Long Island sound,
in the Delaware bay and the creeks that flow
into 1t, in the Chesapeake bay and its trib-
utaries and perhaps in the sounds Of the Car
oliuas. Epicures are divided in opinion a. to
the culinary value of terrapin from those diff
ferent localities, but, whatever the truth may
be, the terrapin Of the Chesapeake bay are tho
moat widely known and highly esteemed.
They live In summer in shallow salt or brack-
| ish water, choosing a place where the bottom
| and banks of the stream or inlet are soft and
the currents slow, but where sand bank 10 CO.
cessible, upon which they may crawl to sun
themselves and where the females may deposit
their eggs. They love to he in the hot sun on
such banks and on partly submerged logs fr,m
| which, when alarmed. they slide with celebrity
surprising in an animal Of their construction.
When the weather begins to get hot the fe-
males crawl upon the sand banks In the night.
time, scratch holes in the sand and deposit their
eggs. sometimes to the number Of twenty or
more, which are left to be Matched by the heat
OF the sun. 1t ia on these occasions that the
terrapin are frequently captured.
TURNED ADRIFr EARLY.
| As soon as the young terrapin emerge from
| the egg shell, at which time they are about the
size of a silver quarter Of a dollar. they make
for the water and proceed to take care Of them
| selves There is no reason to believe that the
parent female takes any notice Of the young.
On the approach Of cold weather the terrapin
retire to deep water or bury themselves in
the mud, where they remain until the next
| summer.
What terrapin feed on in the wild state IL
largely onjectural-probably their diet con-
sists mainly OF soft and hard crabs, "mananoes"
or loug-snout CLANS and acauatio plants. In
captivity they eat anything.
now THEY ARE CAUGHT.
Terrapin are caught in two ways: First, in
shallow water, by surprising them on land or
asleep on logs, or buried in the mud or in a
kind Of trap; second, by scraping them up in
deep water from the oyster rocks with dredges
At one time they were very abundant In all
the waters Of the Chesapeake bay but Of late
years the demand has far exceeded the supply,
and the price has risen from 50 dozen la
1860 to fourteen or fifteen times a. much in
1892
No success has attended the many efforts to
raise" te-rapin. The late DR.. Geo. R. Dennis
ex-united States Senator from the eastern
shore OF Maryland, whose knowledge Of the
habits and manner Of living Of terrapin was
not exceeded by that of any one else. and also
In this, and in other respects, was better
qualified 20 make such an undertaking q sue
cess, attempted to rear terrupin, but after years
OF effort. most intelligently directed, and tho
n hfa 49,, ha1
was obliged to give up the business as hopeless.
He found that terrapin would live In captivity
but would not breed. Another result OF this
and other attempts to raise terrapin was the
development Of the fact that terrapin,
after q long season Of captivity, seemed to lose
something Of the exquisite favor that belongs
to them in a wild state. However, terrapin kept
only few months and no. fed do not deterior-
ate in favor.
ONCE CONSIDERED AZ "nfprrIEs"
just when our ancestors discovered tho mer-
its OF terrapin as an article Of food is not pre-
cisely known. Certain 1t is they regarded ter
rapln at first as come do now as reptiles :"
unfit to be eaten by gentle folk, and left them
to be consumed by negroes and Indians, who
cooked them by roasting them in the ashes.
But more than hundred years ago they were
considered as great delicacies as they now are,
though they were not quite 60 well known
French gentleman Of distinction. about the year
looo, after dining with Gen. Mason, who then
lived on Analostan Island, spoke in his book Of
delicious stew Of ",errapin," which he was
told were plentiful Whereabouts, "but," he adds,
II have not yet seen the bird myself."
HOW TO COOK THEM.
How to cook terrapin is question that gives
rise to much discussion which is unwise, since
every one ought to cook them az he likes them
best
On the eastern shore the idea prevails that O.
the flavor Of terrapin is very delicate, exauis-
| lite and far superior to that Of anything else
nothing should be added to the dish which
might overpower and destroy that flavor
Eastern shore men soy that an admixture Of
spice, large quantities Of wine and condiments
of various sorts will, indeed, make dish which
may be very savory and good, but which il not
terrapin The right way lie first to boil the ter
rapin until the upper shell will easily separate
| from the lower; then take out and throw away
the gall. the sand bag, the skin and nails of the
feet. the tail and the head. Pick up all the rest
OF the terrapin into small pieces, put them into
chatting dish and stew with butter, cream, salt,
pepper, very little vinegar and, at the very
| last. little old Madeira wine. This 10 the
right way to cook terrspin and according 10
an eastern shore man, there IL no other way
But the skill to commix the componeuts CT a
terrapin stew in due proportion IL not given TO
every one 1t is the birthright Of an eastern
shore man and 1t passes by descent, not by pur-
chase. stranger cannot acquire it. c.