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Turtle Soup

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The horned toad says we should go to Mexico.
I have as many Snapping turtles up here as anyone, anywhere. I have all the experience in the world catching them. Ever since I was a kid, we free handed them from the creeks and pulled them in on 8' heavy weight catfish rods with bait. It was all just for fun. If you use a very large hook and bobber, and never set it deep when they took the bait, you could pull them in after a while. The hook hung in the beak like the back of your fingernail. Then just give the line a little slack and they would swim off unharmed, just ******.
But I have never made turtle soup or jambalaya with them. The taking of snappers up here is open as long as you tend the line (no by-catch).
You guys have any thoughts or recipes for the meat? Or thoughts on the necessity of cleaning the turtles in tanks of water before butchering? It seems like a dish you could make in camp on a trek.
 
I have had some wonderful turtle stew. I tried to make it a few times and mine never turned out as well.

My wife's grandpa had turtle traps. I dont believe that he put them in a clean tank of water before he butchered them.

Good luck.

Fleener
 
I believe these two recipes are for sea-turtles. It would make sense that one would need to purge a snapping turtle by having it sit in clean water for a day or two, after having caught it in a pond.

Turtle Braised as Chickens

Cut two pieces of the lean meat of the turtle, the same size as for a fricandeau; blanch them by putting them into cold water; then cover the bottom of a stewpan with sheets of bacon; put in the pieces of turtle, put slices of lemon over them, and sheets of bacon; about a pint of stock, a few onions, a bundle of turtle herbs; set the stewpan on the stove to simmer for an hour; then take them up and pour sauce à la reine over them: garnish with white broccoli or cauliflower.



Semels of Turtle

Cut the lean flesh of the turtle into round pieces about the size of a crown-piece; put about a quarter of a pound of fresh butter into a stewpan, with pepper and salt; chopped mushrooms, parsley, thyme, knotted and sweet marjoram, and a very little basil; set the stewpan on a stove to melt the butter; then let it get three parts cold, put some clarified butter on a sauté pan, dip the turtle first in the butter and herbs, and then in the bread crumbs: put it on the sauté pan, then on the stove to finish: dish them round the dish, and the sauce in the middle.

From A Complete System of Cookery, John Simpson 1822

LD
 
When I was a kid my grandfather lived across the street from a fellow that earned his living catching, butchering and shipping the turtle meat "out east" to restaurants in the early part of the last century. I don't suppose there is much commercial turtle harvesting these days. Dad would occasionally catch a large snapping turtle crossing a road in the summer and toss it in the back of the truck and take up to "the turtle man" and then go pick up the meat later in the day.

Mom would roll the meat in salt, pepper, flour and cornmeal and put it in a cast iron pan on top of the stove and fry it like she would chicken.

The old turtle man always told us kids that there were seven distinct flavors of meat on a turtle. Every so often dad might get two or three turtles and then neighbors would be invited over to eat and I always found it amusing when they would ask what the good tasting meat was, he would say turtle and half of them would them would spit it out and not eat the stuff anymore. Once you got over how ugly they are it was pretty good stuff! :wink:
 
They serve a lot of turtle soup in Louisiana. It is really a thick soup or stew with a lot of vegetables, spicy. Perjeans in Lafayette may tell you their recipe- I think they sell a cook book. I always eat there on my travels East to West. Good spot, on the weekend, good music, except in French.
 
Hairy Clipper said:
Mom would roll the meat in salt, pepper, flour and cornmeal and put it in a cast iron pan on top of the stove and fry it like she would chicken.
That's the way my family fixed it. Sometimes Mom would fry it first, then add a little water to the pan and cover it, bake it an hour in the oven. Good stuff.

Spence
 
In my youth I use to run a trapline, One day while trapping muskrats on a small creek 4-8feet wide I spotted a huge snapper working its way up the creek. I dropped my packbasket and grabbed my shovel used for making dirt hole and pocket sets. I jumped off the bank straddling the turtle and impaling him with my shovel. It's seemed like a good idea at the time....The fight was on.....Turtles are strong. :grin: I wasn't putting my hand down in the now muddy water and I couldn't lift up un the shovel or it would come out. We wrestled for awhile and I eventually managed to get him where I could see his tail and haul him out......It was a fight to remember. :haha:
 
Dad made the mistake of throwing a live snapping turtle into the trunk of the care once. The darn thing really trashed the trunk and everything in it except the spare tire. It even bent up the jack to the point he needed a new one. As kids we were warned not to mess with snappin' turtles.
 
Around here in early 20th century a lot of country fellows did what was called noodling. They got into the creek and felt along the bank underwater, around all the roots, rocks and such, and caught a lot of things with their bare hands, big catfish and buffalo, snapping turtles. I presume it was what Ames was describing when he said, "we free handed them from the creeks." I wonder if it is still being done, today.

Spence
 
How many people back then had the nickname "lefty"?..... :haha:

Up nort, we value our fingers....(For arithmetic, playing the piano and such) We used a steel rod on them. Pointed on end for sounding, and a sharp hook on the other for snagging them.
 
Reminds me of te time we were fishing the Saco river in NH. Got a couple of 25-30 pound snappers along with some trout.
We threw the gear in my truck where we left it downstream and was headed back to my buddies. At the stop light one of the turtles escaped over the tailboard. a woman from away blew her horn and was on her cellphone calling the PD.

She scolded us as we recovered the turtle. Mile down the road a cop car pulled us over. He asked if we had a turtle in the back and I explained we had 2 in the back, legally caught want to see my hunting fishing license?

He said wait here went back got on the radio and came back minutes latter and said sorry to bother you. I laughed and said you had no idea it was legal did you? And the tourist did neither. He laughed and said 1 more month till they go home!
 
I had a similar experience frog hunting one night near some boat docks....A lady yelled at us from her house boat....Threatened to call the cops. I informed her of what we were doing and it's legality.
Had she actually called the cops she would have been in trouble.....She wasn't parked in a slip, so was technically trespassing.

I love idiots... :haha:
 
Colorado Clyde said:
Up nort, we value our fingers....(For arithmetic,....)
I'm surprised to hear that. I would have guessed that for as high as Yankees could count the toes would be enough. :haha: :haha: :haha:

Spence
 
George said:
Colorado Clyde said:
Up nort, we value our fingers....(For arithmetic,....)
I'm surprised to hear that. I would have guessed that for as high as Yankees could count the toes would be enough. :haha: :haha: :haha:

Spence

Yankees don't run around barefoot...We all have shoes. :wink:
 

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