searched my books and this is what came up with, don't sound to bad.
Turtle Soup
1 1/3 lbs turtle meat, 4 1/2 c water, 2 med onions, 1 bay leaf, 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, 1 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 c lemon juice, 5 Tbs butter, 3 Tbs Worchester sauce, 1/3 c flour, 2 hard boiled eggs sliced, 3 Tbs tomatoe puree, 1/3 c fresh chicken broth, parsley, chopped
Bring meat and water to boil, skim off foam. Chop one onion and set aside, quarter the other onion and add to pot with bay leaf, pepper and salt. Cover and simmer for 2 hrs or till tender. Remove meat and cut into 1/2 cubes and set aside. Strain broth and set aside.
Melt butter in sauce pan, add chopped onion and cook till tender, Add flour, stir till light brown, Whisk in reserved broth, cook and stir till thickened. Reduce heat, add tomatoe puree and Worchestershire. simmer until heated through, Add chicken broth, eggs lemon juice and meat. simmer until heated through garnish with parsley serves 8-12
DUTCH OVEN TURTLE
Cut turtle meat into chunks, using all edible parts including heart, Soak briefly in lemon or lime juice, Dip in beaten egg, roll in flour and cornmeal, and season with salt pepper and other spices of choice. Brown in hot fat in preheated dutch oven. Reduce heat and add 2-3 cups water, sliced onion, chopped celery and simmer until tender.
A friend of mine that has passed on use to make a tasty turtle stew . He always added some rattlesnake to add some flavor . I haven't had a good bowl of turtle stew since he died. Next time I see his son I'll see if he has his recipe.
Good recipe. Turtle makes good gumbo, good fried as well! thmbsup
It is good fried!!! Caught a huge softshell a couple years back He was wonderful breaded and fried with some fries and slaw!!!! mmmmmmmmmmmmm gooodd!!!!!
Turtle McNuggets!
mmmmmmm...... Fried snaper its been a while, but Good
Turtle nuggets anything like gator. used to have a little cafe ,in little town, that had gator bites, some were as white and tender as could be and some might as well have cut sole off boots. Just wonderin,
Mostly tender, unless from a rank old boar turtle, then its kinda iffy and best used for gumbo or stews.
its aazing how so many people wouldnt ever think of eating turtle, they just dont know what they missing, its been a staple in my home for years in the spring we find turtle traveling on the roads and we pick em up for the pot.. or mostly frying pan.. occasionally we would have a local farmer want the snappers out of thier duck ponds so we would set limb lines for em and drag em in. good stuff gonna have to try that recipe.
Had turtle lotta ways. Shells are also handy to have as well.
Voy
oh yeah the shell of any size are really handy, and make intresting looking pieces for rodys.. the talons are also good to use for decor. i been thinking about making a bag outta some turtle hide from the next on e i get, unfortunatly its turning cold and they going to the mud for winter..
Just sold my last snapper shell. Probably let it go cheaper than I should have at $30 but was broke and needed cash fast.
Voy
yeah, the real large ones.. too big for making shell bag, will go for pretty good money at swap meets and flea makets.. i know a few years ago you could get a cheap clock kit and wally world or some craft stores and a little drilling and fitting you could turn out a shell clock that would bring good money at the meets and markets. you can use shelac to keep the scales on the shell or if its older with the scales coming off, strip it down and paint it up. ive even seen mixing bowl sets made outta them...
Thinking about Snappers? Watch This!
http://www.wimp.com/snappingturtles
heck yeah.. that the turtle man of kentucky.. one of my bretheren!!! when us kentucky boys go at it we do it all the way or go home!!! outta try noodling turtles and cats some time its a blast!!!
NOODLING TURTLES??? NOT THIS BOY!!! I value my digits all where they are. Maybe served on noodles but not noodling ta get em.
Voy
I've been "noodling" in the past. I'm very, very good at staying just behind the guy sticking his hand under the bank overhang in case he screams and I need to run. rdfce
lol, yeah it sounds crazy but snappers are LESS inclined to bite under water, if you use your hands start high and come down on the shell and feel for the ridges on the back, they always point back to the tail, once you got him by the tail he cant bite ya.. its just a southern thang.. i guess but its makes for a intresting day.. [conf]
Ya all can keep the noodleing thing... I used to scuba dive and learned a lesson when one of my dive buddies stuck his hand in a hole in the coral... we fought off several sharks who were attracted by the blood coming form is hand when the moray eel that lived in that hole decided to take a bite....
not many moray eel in the green river and watersheds.. but plent of freshwater eel thems good eating too.
Quote from: kybackwoodsman on November 12, 2010, 12:49:15 AM
not many moray eel in the green river and watersheds.. but plent of freshwater eel thems good eating too.
Is that what that long skinny fish is???
Doug
well depends, fresh water eel look like.. well eels.. stay on bottoms. we also have ALOT of longnosed gar which is a really long skinny bony fish with a set of serious teeth. also have what most locals call a grinnil, which i think is actually a type of blackfish.. they kinda look like a cross between a bass and a carp, live in nasty sluggish water and get big. the worst thing about them is they have a bad habit of biting people or anything in the water, and the one i managed to catch had some seriously nasty sharp teeth. now the ky state gov. has reintroduced gator gar in the green river system, so we got all kinds of nasties swimming around, but some really nice flathead cats.
PS i was wrong about the grinnil, its actually a bowfin fish, i managed to catch one in a slough a few years ago, but how i did it is another conversation all together.!! ;D
Around here we got eel pout.
Voy
Quote from: hanshi on November 12, 2010, 12:05:02 AM
I've been "noodling" in the past. I'm very, very good at staying just behind the guy sticking his hand under the bank overhang in case he screams and I need to run. rdfce
I'm with ya M'man, and iffin anybody's sreamin 5 bucks says I'm outta the water first 'shok'
Our Local New Game Warden wated to give me a Ticket on this Turtle.He tried telling me it was a Protected Alligator Snapper,I finally convinced him it was a Common Snapper.Told my wife I get tierd breaking in New Game Wardens &)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v59/oneshot/oneshot%202/002-5.jpg)
oneshot
ive seen a few gator snappers, not hard to tell the difference between a gator snapper and a common snapper. some people need to stay behind a desk, probly never seen a wild snapper of either kind just pictures in books and looking to make some waves!
Only saw one gator snapper in my life and that was over 30 years ago. We do have alotta snappers up here though with 14-16 inches accross the shell being common and some of the big ones are outright huge. I have seen some at a friends old cabin that could take an entire cornish game hen in 1 bite.
Voy
my grandfather and my uncle caught a snapper out of the river years ago that was the size of a #3 washtub.. thats pretty big. course them gator snappers down further south will go well over 100 lbs.
Aint sure on weights of em up here but I know some of em do get mighty big.
Voy
yeah, on adverage a common snapper you find around here can go between 15 to 30 lbs. but ive seen bigger in the rivers and one in particular in an old farm pond in northern ky. i swear it came up like a cork one day while i was fishing and its head was the size of a football, with a 6 inch or so neck. BIG turtle! turtles that size aint to good for eating though, tough as boot leather.
Seen a few that size up here an while I always figured how old it had ta be to get that big and that it deserved ta live for whatever time it had left, I had not thought about how the meat would be, but it makes sense. Thats why I wont take large deer. the meats no good to eat. But this year I would have considered it as I havent gotten a deer in a while.
Voy
typically unless they are caught on a line or are killing off fowl i just let the big ones alone.. but if they are caught on a line there aint much you can do for em. then its the pressure cooker. to me the best ones are about 10-15 inches across the shell, good eating, and the shells have alot of good uses.
Bulldog lady i noticed that you soak it in lemon can that step be skipped? There are just some foods I refuse to eat and for great reasons lol
Never said I ate it , just that was the recipe, lemon juice is a good tenderizer! Activates bakin powder and soda too, use it in my choc chip cookies all the time, Know you is allergic to it so would just leave it .
that was the best movie i've seen in a long time. that guy was a hoot, and he doesn't drink!! i could hang with him. he has a world of REAL KNOWLEDGE! you think he even knows what "political correctness" is, i don't think so.........
you talkn bout the turtle hunter?? its on youtube its so great, and yeah im about the same.. just alot prettier!! ;D
the way we always fixed turtle is to brown it in a skillet then put in a pressure cooker with alittle water and pressure till tender.