Turtle soup/meat

[Bingo]

   At our Boy Scout camp the lake is over run with turtles. I have often thought of catching one or two and making turtle soup. The one thing that makes me put on the brakes is that I have never done it before and have been told that you need to keep them in clean water for several days to clean them out.
   Could someone please give me an education on turtles and cooking them?

[subdjoe]

   At our Boy Scout camp the lake is over run with turtles. I have often thought of catching one or two and making turtle soup. The one thing that makes me put on the brakes is that I have never done it before and have been told that you need to keep them in clean water for several days to clean them out.
   Could someone please give me an education on turtles and cooking them?

Go here:  Historic American Cookbook Project and search Turtle.

And here:  Just Game Recipes

I've never cooked it, so good luck.  Let us know how it comes out.

[briarpatch]

What kind of turtles are they?

[FourBee]

Years ago I heard a lot about people in this part of Oklahoma eating 'Soft-Shell' turtles.  Said they were delicious.   The ones I saw in stock ponds back then were large grayish 16" - 20" flat rounded turtles with a soft smooth leathery shell.   

[chefjeff]

I've caught and cooked snappers up to 24#. Don't let 'em bite or claw you.Cut off the carapace(bottom flat of shell)and you got'im.You will find some fleshy parts along legs,neck,back. Cut them bite size. Some people say there is seven kinds of meat in a turtle.I think its like chicken,light & dark.You can parboil 30m. then bread and fry. Or parboil and then make your soup as you prefer it. Not my favorite,but its fitten to eat.

[jamesrus]

As a Louisiana native i have eaten my share of turtle. The kinds i reccomend are snapping turtle and loggerhead. Sliders are ok, they have the red, yellow or orange stripe on the side of their head or neck. But it takes a lot more sliders to get enough meat. Turtle soup is ok....but i prefer a sauce pecan served over rice. It takes about 2 live 3 to 4 pound turtles per person.

First you catch the turtle. Easily done with a stick driven into the bank of a pond. Some nylon string that will reach about a foot into the edge of the water, and a treble hook with chicken hearts for bait. You dont have to keep them in clean water or anything to clean them out.

Cleaning the turtle is not the easiest chore. First you must end its life. Cut off the head, there is a little bit of meat in the neck so you skin and save that. The bulk of meat will be in the legs and tail. You will need a hatchet to split the shell where the top and bottom halves meet between the legs head and tail. i reccomend using a knife to ring the skin where it connects to the shell before you split the shell. Peel back the skin to the claws, same for the tail. Split the shell and remove the legs cut off the claws and the peeled back skin. If the turtle is large enough there are two strips of met inside the back of the shell with some short ribs covering them. Use a pair of side cutters to break a few of these out of the way and remove the meat, it is kinda like a tenderloin.

Then in a large pot cut up several onions, bell peppers if you like them, green onions,  fresh garlic cloves and other veggies like this you may like, i dont reccomend potatoes. Use just enough olive oil in the pot to put a lite coting on the bottom of the pot and over the veggies. Cook this down on high heat till the onions are soft, you MUST stir a lot. Add the turtle meat with bones in to the pot, Keep stirring still on high heat. Sear the meat good to seal in the juices. Usually 15 minutes or less. Add 2 to 3 cans of stewed tomatoes.

[jamesrus]

Keep stirring this a lot to keep it from sticking, about 10 more minutes, reduce heat to medium, add enough water to cover what is in the pot. Bring this to a near boil Reduce heat to low and simmer for an hour or hour and a half. You want the meat to begin coming off the bones.  I forgot to add you want to add salt pepper parsley and such to flavor when you add the water. Serve over rice. Yum Yum.

Jamesrus

[Peshtigo71]

   I've heard the same thing as chefjeff about the 7 flavors of meat being in a turtle.  Clean them like jamesrus explains.  We used to catch some pretty big snappers when I was a kid, quite some time ago.  My dad would get the turtle to bite down on a stick and then step on its nose, someone would grab the tail and stretch out the neck and off goes the head.  He'd brown the meat in a little olive oil in a cast iron frypan and then you fix it like your favorite beef vegetable soup.  I sure could go for some again, it's been along time.

[Spector]

Step down on the back of the turtle's shell near the tail and they will just barely stick their noses out past their shell.  You can take a good board and come straight down in an arc and hit them straight on the end of their nose.  It knocks them out.
 
A young minister taught me that back in the 80's when I was trying to play tug-o-war with a couple of them so I could lop their heads off.  He laughed at me.
 
After I knocked one out I held it up by it's tail and that ole neck just fell right out of that shell...a lot of neck.  Makes them easy to deal with after that.   
 
If I remember right I think I used a heavy piece of 1x4 that day.  For a big snapper a piece of 2x4 might be a better choice.  You just need some good board speed when it hits him in the end of the nose.  Just don't choke up too much and hit yourself in the shins. 
 
If you don't hit him right the first time he'll be more leary when you step on the back of his shell the next time.  Don't step on his shell too high up or he'll just retreat into his shell.
 
Do it right......and it will put a grin on your face..........Mike

[powderman]

Snapping turtle is darned good eating. The ones Fourbee talked about we always called leatherbacks, they are good too. Ya know how far a snapper can stretch his neck out?? About an inch farther than you think. POWDERMAN. 

[Bugflipper]

Never ate one but caught and cleaned a bunch for my grandpa. He ate the soft shell and snapping turtles. I would put them in a 55 gallon drum with a cinder block for them to get out of the water. For a week or so they would be fed vegetables like carrots, just whatever was laying around. That was supposed to clean them out. The water was about as high as the cinder block and changed out every day.

When it came to dress, the head was lopped off. Then the water hose was put on high and held up to the neck. It would balloon the skin from the meat so you didn't have to really skin it. An air hose can be used as well. After you dispatch him just cut a little hole in the armpit skin and put an air nozzle tip in it to inflate.

[powderman]

I always put em in a big bbl of water to let them clean thereselves out. After a few days the water would be black. POWDERMAN. 

[gp911]

My great uncle used to make a delicious turtle soup that he served whenever the family got together. After he died his wife had the recipe but never made it, and then when she was dying she gave a little bit of the recipe to each of her children with the hope that they would overcome their differences and come together over a batch of Marvin's Turtle Soup. Unfortunately it didn't turn out that way and nobody seems to be able to figure the whole thing out. As I recall it was a thin base that was reminiscent of beef broth with some tomato to it along with some lemon. The turtle meat was pretty well shredded throughout the soup and there was onion and maybe some carrot & celery in it, maybe even a little corn in there. I do know one of the ingredients in the cheesecloth he infused the broth with was some sort of pickling spice that came in a box. Beyond that it's a mystery, but I have fond memories of that wonderfully oily, flavorful stuff!

-gp911

[RemingtonMagnum]

Hi Friends
 
Anyone have some turtle shells they want to let go. I need about half dozen 7 inch and up to make Tallow lamps for our use.
 
Thanks Don Jackson Remington Magnum/Ultramag

[smokehouserex]

 
 
  Hey Folks:
  Love cooter stew. I like to stew chicken backs, pork butts by themselves, the turtle needs to be cooked seperate and drained, do not drain the chicken and pork butts, add this  broth  too the stew., it might not be turtle stew by some people's standards but it sure is good. Cook the meat all too pieces, remove the bones and chicken skin, unless you like it, put pretty much the same ingredients as everyone else does. Corn only after the stew is almost done cooking, stir stir stir, onions, potato's,  celery optional, and for every gallon of pot soup/veggies/meat ect add 1oz of texas pete. Veg. is your preference. salt/pepper ect.
  If you want the stew to taste mossy/strong then when cooking the turtle meat, cook it  with the chicken/pork and don't drain. I like to have equal amount of turtle meat to the ch+pk. meat.
  I didn't come up with this rec. my older brother shared it with me but, have it your way and enjoy drinking a quart or so.
  Just our way of cooking COOTER STEW.
  ENJOY
  HM

[pspinc2003]

I'm sure if you watch Swamp People long enough, those 2 old coots that live in the swamp with no teeth will teach you what you need to know.

[jvs]

Old timers in my area tell me to bury the head deep or dispose of it with care after it is detached to keep kids and pets from coming in contact with it for at least 30 days.


Seems that those turtle heads can still snap and remove digits for quite a while after beheading.  I guess the nerve impulses in the jaws and tongue still work after death.  In either case, it seemed like good advice to me.  I don't know if it's true or not but I never tried to find out either.

One word of warning though.  There are alot of diseases that can be on the outside of a Turtle, including Food Poisoning.  It is much better to soak them for at least a few days to clean the inside and the scum and slime from the outside.  Their habitat and diet is not too clean compared to human standards.  And wash your hands after handling a live turtle shell and skin.  Boil the turtle in the shell at a full rolling boil for at least 20 minutes before handling again.


Pull the shell apart, skin out the legs, neck and tail and remove the meat.  There is supposed to be 7 different color and textures of meat in a turtle.  It's alot of work, but worth it.   

I've made turtle soup already, and it is great.