Twain's Feast - Andrew Beahrs [75]
Twain was mortified. One paper called his speech a “high-flavored Nevada delirium tremens,” tossing him straight back to the western deserts he’d tried to escape. Twain wrote to Howells that “I feel my misfortune has injured me all over the country; therefore it will be best that I retire from the public at present.” Less than four months later, Twain and his family left for Europe: they would be gone for more than a year.
MARYLAND TERRAPINS
A young one will boil tender in half an hour. They are done when the shell is easily removed. Be careful not to cut off the heads before boiling, as it will make them watery. In picking them, be careful not to break the gall or waste the liquor. The small bones are often left in the terrapin—if they are Diamondbacks. Be careful not to break the eggs. When picked, add the liquor, and to three medium sized terrapins, three-fourths pound of butter, salt and pepper (cayenne) to taste. Let them stew for a short time, but be careful not to stir them more than is absolutely necessary. If you wish, one-half pint of good wine can be added just before serving.
Another way to dress terrapin is to add to the liquor of three terrapins, three-fourths pound of butter thickened with browned flour, cayenne pepper and salt. Spices or onions are never used in Maryland to dress terrapins.—Mrs. William Reed.
—CARRIE V.SHUMAN, Favorite Dishes, 1893
Baltimore and Philadelphia were both famous for terrapin soup; by including the Philadelphia version on his menu, Twain joined a debate that, Ward McAllister said in 1890, had “been agitated for thirty years or more.” The major point of contention was cream. Philadelphians added a lot of cream, while Baltimoreans favored a butter-infused broth like that served at the Whittier dinner. The difference prompted long-running, passionate disputes, like the one over whether Manhattan clam chowder, lacking cream, is potentially good clam chowder, or even chowder at all (it’s not).12
Given Twain’s affectionate relationship with cream, it’s no surprise that he sided with the Philadelphians. Colonel John Forney, once a member of Lincoln’s cabinet, would have agreed, arguing that “terrapin is essentially a Philadelphia dish. Baltimore delights in it, Washington eats it, New York knows it; but in Philadelphia it approaches a crime not to be passionately fond of it.” However, in 1893 two clubs met before an impartial jury to decide once and for all which soup deserved primacy. Twain was not on the jury; Baltimore won.
The stew wasn’t always named after a city. There was also Southern style, sometimes attributed to Savannah or Charleston, which the New Yorker’s Joseph Mitchell gorged on in 1939 and which “contained the meat, hearts and livers of two diamondbacks killed early that day, eight yolks of hard-boiled eggs that had been pounded up and passed through a sieve, a half pound of yellow country butter, two pints of thick cream, a little flour, a pinch of salt, a dash of nutmeg, and a glass and a half of amontillado.” This recipe, like most others, included nutmeg; others added mace, or cayenne.
Many recipes called for liver, a holdout from a more all-inclusive era; Amelia Simmons had begun her 1796 recipe with detailed instructions on handling the entrails, lungs, blood, and liver, all added to the back and belly meat (each dish was then infused with Madeira and sweet herbs, covered with beaten eggs and parsley, and baked). But by the time of the 1887 White House Cook Book, entrails were “no longer used in cooking terrapins