If one wishes to emulate the classic flavor of terrapin, there are a few options. Perhaps the most famous(?) involves boiling a calves head. A 1900 article in the Baltimore Sun claimed that “Muskrats when served by the Eastern Shore cook as ‘mock terrapin’ will challenge the epicure to distinguish it from the real Chesapeake diamond-back.” Muskrats and calves-heads being hard to come by these days, the most appealing option uses cooked chicken. “Chicken terrapin” often appeared in housewives’ columns as a clever way to turn humble leftovers into something elevated nearly to the status of Maryland’s most famous gourmet dish.I actually suspect that Chicken Terrapin may have originated outside of Maryland. Why make an imitation of something that was so abundant? Chicken terrapin recipes appear in 19th-century newspapers in places like Kansas, Michigan, and Western Alabama.
Maryland can never say no to a good chicken dish, however, and before long Chicken Terrapin was a standard recipe in local cookbooks and newspaper columns. It died out by the 1940s, for the most part. The last time a recipe for Chicken Terrapin appeared in the Baltimore Sun was 1965.
The Newcomer home, 105 W. Monument Street on Google StreetviewI used a recipe from “Maryland’s Way,” attributed to Mrs. Morris K. Barroll.Born Margaret Waldo Newcomer in 1905, Mrs. Barroll was the grand-daughter of B. F. Newcomer, a prominent citizen of Baltimore who was a Johns Hopkins University trustee, a director of the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad, and a founder of the School for the Blind. In his native Washington County, he founded the public library and a home for orphans.
Margaret’s father Waldo Newcomer was of course also very wealthy. His 1934 obituary describes him as a financier and philanthropist, an “ardent advocate of prohibition appeal,” and one of the wealthiest men in Maryland.
Margaret’s family lived in a beautiful (still standing) mansion at 105 West Monument Street in Mount Vernon.
In 1927 she married Morris Keene Barroll, a Chestertown lawyer. She passed away in 1971.
Margaret and her sister in the Baltimore Sun, 1913
In 1937, at the tail end of Chicken Terrapin’s popularity, a recipe appeared in “The Best Book for Every Cook,” from the Mt. Paran Presbyterian Church in Baltimore County, along with some text praising the virtues of Chicken Terrapin:
“People whose pocketbooks are not sufficiently expansive to permit of frequent dishes of terrapin, or who have not cooks who can properly prepare the dish, will find consolation in ‘chicken terrapin,’ a delicacy that, though known to few, is a capital imitation of terrapin.”
This recommendation is accompanied by some weird racist nostalgia about ‘mammys’ and their excellent (and “lost”) cooking skills. I mention this because it strengthens the link between actual terrapin and “chicken terrapin.” This may well have been an affordable dish popular with home cooks, but it was apparently also viewed similarly to other classic Maryland dishes enjoyed by the wealthy.
I of course may never know what actual diamondback terrapin tastes like (and do I want to?), so I can’t speak to the alleged similarity. It is yet another example of foods prepared ‘in imitation‘ of something else taking on a life of their own.
Recipe:
- 4 Tablespoon butter
- 2 Tablespoon flour
- 1 Cup cream
- .25 Teaspoon mace
- 1 Teaspoon salt
- black pepper to taste
- cayenne pepper to taste
- 3 hard-cooked eggs
- .5 Cup sherry
- 1 Quart cold chicken, diced
Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat. Stir in flour and gradually add cream, mace, salt and pepper, stirring constantly. Chop egg white fine and add to sauce. Mash yolks and add 1/2 cup of the sauce before returning to pan. Stir in sherry gradually. Add chicken and stir until heated. Serve on crisp toast. Serves 6.
Recipe adapted from “Maryland’s Way: The Hammond-Harwood House Cookbook”
