Original White House Cookbook

up the liver and all the rest of the terrapin into small pieces, adding the blood and juice that have flowed out in cutting up; add half a pint of water; sprinkle a little flour over them as you place them in the stewpan; let them stew slowly ten minutes, adding salt, black and cayenne pepper, and a very small blade of mace; then add a gill of the best brandy and half a pint of the very best sherry wine; let it simmer over a slow fire very gently. About ten minutes or so, before you are ready to dish them, add half a pint of rich cream, and half a pound of sweet butter, with flour, to prevent boiling; two or three minutes before taking them off the fire, peel the eggs carefully and throw them in whole. If there should be no eggs use the yolks of hens’ eggs, hard boiled. This recipe is for four terrapins. Rennert's Hotel, Baltimore. BOILED LOBSTER. Put a handful of salt into a large kettle or pot of boiling water. When the water boils very hard put in the lobster, having first brushed it and tied the claws together with a bit of twine. Keep it boiling from twenty minutes to half an hour, in proportion to its size. If boiled too long the meat will be hard and stringy. When it is done take it out, lay it on its claws to drain, and then wipe it dry. It is scarcely necessary to mention that the head of a lobster and what are called the lady fingers are not to be eaten. Very large lobsters are not the best, the meat being coarse and tough. The male is best for boiling ; the flesh is firmer and the shell a brighter red. It may readily be distinguished from the female ; the tail is narrower, and the two uppermost fins within the tail are stiff and hard. Those of the hen lobster are not so, and the tail is broader. Hen lobsters are preferred for sauce or salad, on account of their coral. The head and small claws are never used. They should be alive and freshly caught when put into the boiling kettle. After being cooked and cooled, split open the body and tail and crack the claws, to extract the meat. The sand pouch found near the throat should be removed. Care should be exercised that none of the feathery, tough, gill-like particles found under the body shell get mixed with the meat, as they are indigestible and have caused much trouble. They are supposed to be the cause of so-called poisoning from eating lobster. Serve on a platter. Lettuce and other concomitants of a salad should also be placed on the table or platter. SCALLOPED LOBSTER. Buttee a deep dish and cover the bottom with fine bread crumbs ; put on this a layer of chopped lobster, with pepper and salt ; so on, alternately, until the dish is filled, having crumbs on top. Put on bits of butter, moisten with milk and bake about twenty minutes. DEVILED LOBSTER.