Easy way to remove turtle meat from shell without damaging the shell and also a good recipe to use the meat in a meal and also a good turtle soup recipe would be greatly appreciated.

-- Mary welshko (marwel@microserve.net), June 19, 2000

Answers

Read "how do i get snapping turtles out of my pond?"

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), June 20, 2000.

From the Wild Food Cookbook:

Dressing Out a Turtle. Scrub the decapitated turtle with laundry soap and a stff brush until it is clean. Get a container of water, big enough to hold the turtle boiling. When you have scrubbed off the leeches and green growths, boil the whole turtle for 30-40 minutes. I like to work outdoors, so I take the turtle pot and dump it outside on the grass and leave it until the turtle is cool enough to handle. I turn it upside down and cut out the under shell. Again I let it cool. There are seven different flavors of turtle meat. Some of the choicest lie along the backbone and it is almost hopeless to get this out if the turtle has not been boiled first. Now is the time to work with two dishpans. I toss the good meat into one and the discards into the other. When in doubt I taste. Muscle meat tends to be good, fat is often of low quality. Seek the liver carefully. It is often excellent, but the gall bladder must be cut away and discarded or its acrid taste will permeate, and your friends will wish you had never come upon a turtle.

Fried Turtle: Fry like chicken or pheasant.

Turtle Soup: Cook slowly, simmering over low heat with onions and a little salt. Some include the small intestines in turtle soup. Meat stock or bouillon may be added. Taste the soup when the meat is tender. Now is the time to decide whether to make plain turtle soup seasoned with sherry, or whether to add tomatoes, carrots, celery, etc.

P.S. Be careful with the head. It can still cause a nasty bite long after it has been severed. I question the wisdom of tasting turtle meat before it is thoroughly cooked.

-- Ken Scharabok (Scharabo@aol.com), June 20, 2000.

make a slit in the skin,, hook up an air hose, pops right off, looses the skin from the meat

-- STAN (sopal@net-port.com), June 20, 2000.

AHHH!Fried turtle with a big bucket of coleslaw and kneecaps! Fried turtle festival in Menschalsville-a combination of one of my favorite foods and fondest memories of childhood. I guess thats why my favorite receipe thes days is: Take 1 large turtle, wait till pond warms up, throw turtle in.

Turtles, snappers in particular, have had such a hard time around here that there are very few around. Ive become something of a turtle refuge operator. People bring me baby turtles and injured adults off of roads and such and I nurse them back to health or raise up the little ones in tanks until they are a relatively "safe" size and re-release them in (what I believe to be) safe breeding flats.

If I try hard enough, then maybe some of my children will be able to enjoy fried turtle, too.

-- William in WI (thetoebes@webtv.net), June 20, 2000.

Here is another turtle soup recipe from Bootstraps and Buicuits: 300 wonderful wild food recipes from the hills of West Virginia by Anna Lee Robe-Terry.

Deboned meat from one small turtle. One each cup of chopped potatoes, onion and celery. One quart of turtle stock made from the bones. Cook all together until vegetables are tender. Add enough milk or cream to your taste. Adjust salt and pepper. Serve. (I suspect for larger turtles you can probably add more veges.

This book is very interesting to read. It is available from ALT PRESS, Rt 6, Box 3091, Fairmont, WV 26554 for $17.98 plus $1.50 shipping (WV residents add $1.08).

-- Ken Scharabok (scharabo@aol.com), June 23, 2000.