Have you ever ate Turtle?
 

The turtle thread had me thinking what it actually tastes like?


who has dined upon said flippered meal, and how was it prepared? :cool:


Just like chicken, or?

My last year in college - 1976-77. My 5th year as it took me an extra year to figure out what I wanted to major in.

Another Ornamental Horticulture senior and I were able to snag free rent at the cottage on the department greenhouse facility and grounds. In return for looking after things after hours and on weekends.

So I knew my roommate Gary but not that much - just from being in the same classes. First night (I kid you not) a buddy of his, who is a Gainesville native, brings over turtle and they cook it along with other ingredients to make a stew. Sure I tried some and it was actually very good.

And that's the first and last time I ever ate turtle.

Steve gives this thread 1 star ;).

I never have, but "my turtle ponds" used to provide another source of food for my great grandfather and descendents.

Many times.
My grandfather taught me how to bait a hook and leave it hooked to a floating board on a line.
Just check the board every hour or so and if it is pulled into the shore...pull it up.
Take the turtle (hopefully a box turtle) home and use a hatchet to split it in half.

The meat was delicious. Cooked as any other animal.

I could never do it now....a completely different time.

And you could've just popped over to The Yearling near Hawthorne and had it. The Banyan Tree down in Tampa used to serve it too.

Or hung out with the old black people fishing in Bivens Arm on 441, they liked their turtles as well.

No, I have never eaten turtle. My mother did growing up, but I won’t do it. I consider an animal that has an almost infinite lifespan gets a pass from human apex predation unless my survival depends on it.

I’ve had turtle soup but it’s been several years. I recall it being pretty meaty more like lamb or beef.

I asked my wife and she said she wouldn’t eat turtle because Buddha was reincarnated as a turtle or something like that.

[QUOTE=KC911;11288623]Steve gives this thread 1 star ;).

The turtles give it a negative five.:eek:

My grandpa used the same wooden block for splitting turtle shells along with beheading chickens for cooking.
He was good with a hatchet.

I'm a "live & let live" guy... but I exterminated 4 big azz snappers (18-24" in diameter) and relocated about 50 sliders to other "big lakes" a few years back.... they were taking over my ponds.

Big azz snappers are nasty critters .... dogs in the pond weren't safe. I hated doing it .... but the snappers had to go. I still have more than enough

I had turtle soup in New Orleans but it seemed to be 95% soup 5% turtle so I couldn't tell much.

I saw a show on Food network, might have been Bourdain, they were in the south and they shoved an air hose down the turtles mouth to separate the shell and get to the meat. I think they were big Snappers. Didn't look too appetizing.

The turtle soup that I ate..from my G-Ma was more like 75% turtle and the rest veggies and broth.
Box turtles were the best. Snappers were like chuck roast.

Box turtles are protected now...no soup for you.

Snapper Soup al the time. Yum

^^^ Box is the best. :D
Snapper is tough.

[QUOTE=stevej37;11288639] LOL......

I had some soft shell turtle while in West Palm Beach. Very greasy.

I've never tried it but when I was working in the jungle's of S. America there was a guy on the crew who used to catch them and he'd take them home to kill, cook and eat. I heard 1 day that he let them all go, I asked him why (they were/are considered a delicacy in that part of the world), he told me that when he let them out of the cage he saw one chowing down on a fresh pile of dog crap, that was enough for him.

Turtle soup in NoLA - At K Paul's! Excellent.

I also had it at a Chinese restaurant. One of the "soft shell" turtles. It was excellent. Not for the faint of heart in terms of texture. It was chopped up in a stir fry dish - no surprise.

I wish I was able to fish for snapping turtles and eat them. Looks like an excellent source for a home cooked meal.

G

I had turtle soup decades ago in Mexico and Central America. At the time, I wasn't aware they were endangered and felt a little guilty later on when I learned. The soup was excellent and the turtle was meaty.

Turtle. Sounds like it would be something found in a proper Himalayin* stew.


( I found him a layin' on the side of the road so I threw him in the stew.) :D

You may be right, never had box, snapper is on a lot of menu's in South Jersey. a little hardboiled egg and sprinkle of sherry.

There is a small lake in Cape May Point called Lilly lake. It's a popular place to ice skate in the winter or feed the ducks and geese or fish spring and summer. When I was a kid my mother and I would go from time to time. One time, there weren't many ducks geese as usual, I saw a few dead ones at the waters edge and I could see a few small groups here and there at different spot around the edge so I walked around trying to get closer so I could feed them.

I got to one spot where there was a little clearing down to the waters edge. I saw what appeared to be a big rock. It was a turtle, I was maybe ten or twelve so I am sure it wasn't as big as I remember but it was huge. I went back up the bank to where my mother could see me and began calling her to come see, this caught the attention of a man who lived in a house across the street who also came over.

He grabbed a stick and put it in front of the turtles beak, it chomped down like a vice. He drug it up out of the bank and onto the street. He asked if we would keep an eye on it while he ran across the street? He came back with a gaff. He said the turtle had been wreaking havoc on the ducks and geese eating the eggs and swimming up under them biting off their feet they would then drown. He said they have been trying to catch it for weeks.

I asked what he was going to do with it? He said make soup. He then gaffed it in the neck and dragged back to his house.

Every time I have snapper soup I think of that day.

Yes. Traditional meal. Always contained a lot of fresh spinach and finely chopped, boiled eggs. Served with a small glass of Sherry that was added just before eating. The meat is darker and almost beef-like in taste and texture.

There was a restaurant in Chicago called Binyon’s Restaurant. Turtle soup was always on the menu. They were noted for it. Always wanted to eat there, never got the chance. The restaurant has since closed.

If I had the opportunity to try turtle, I would.

Nice

Down here it's on the menu of most upper end rest. I fix it from time to time.

There is plenty of conventional food available in my local grocery store. No doubt at all, if I was hungry and we had no other easy options, turtle would be on my menu card.

I prefer beef, pork, ham, chicken, fish and fowl as they are plentiful. I even eat vegetables and fruit. I have had bear, elk, alligator, deer wild goat, sheep, wild turkey (not just the bourbon) and rattlesnake. Also Possum, (greasy as heck) and racoon, even squirrel. Not road kill, all were shot by bow and arrow.

I had turtle soup at Patout's a long while back. Not sure if in NO or New Iberia but as Craigster mentioned, you can't really tell what the taste is.

If I had it to taste it, I'd just as soon have it fried in a skillet.

It makes me wonder who gets the job of opening the shells and extracting the meat for the restaurants.

No but I have eaten cat before.

I had turtle many. many years ago down in Mazatlán. It was fine, I was young and didn't consider any endangered species type factors. I wouldn't do it again, just on principle. Turtles don't hurt anyone.

My friend's dad would put it in chili.

most all of us have before...but we call it by a diff name. :D

Spicy Chicken #5 at the local Teriyaki place?


:rolleyes:

Turtle? Is that what they're calling it these days?

don't want to start another thread....

http://blogs.columbian.com/morel-the...illed-clam.jpg

have you ever ate one while the turtle was diggin the sun! ??

Its tastes like chicken? LOL! I had turtle chocolate clusters, now that was pretty tastey. I think the English eat turtle soup? Dunno?;)

I suppose different turtles have different flavors. The snapper I have had is very beefy in flavor, similar texture and color as well. Along the lines of a roast, the meat can pulled apart in strings. I have even heard turtle has been substitute with beef in some places?

My mom used to make us snapping turtle soup.

The first one was a bit of an adventure. My brother and I were 9 or 10 and we had caught a pretty nice one. My dad got home and told us we could help clean it. We put it on the chopping block and waved a stick in front of it, dad chopped off the head with an axe.

As he was cutting the body out of the shell the legs and tail were still working against him. He eventually got the body out of the shell and cleaned up, but moms dog started howling. She was a miniature dachshund, she had been messing with the head and it latched on to her snout. It was a tougher job getting that head off the hound than skinning the turtle.

After that we would have turtle soup a couple times a year. We got a bit of a reputation, a couple local guys showed up with turtles for my mother (she wanted nothing to do with them before they were cleaned).