In search of period receipts for Snapping Turtle

[Stonewall_Greyfox]

I've got a 25-30 lbs. Snapping Turtle to finish cleaning this evening...and I am looking for some period receipts for serving this delicacy.

Thanks,

Paul B.

[Hardtack Herring]

Re: In search of period receipts for Snapping Turtle

http://www.ehow.com/how_2067585_make-turtle-soup.html

I am not too sure how it will taste but is from the 19th century.

You should be able to get everything you need at the local store too unlike some of the receipts I have seen.

It also looks like you may have enough turtle to make several batches.

Have fun chopping the turtles head off! Do not let it snap at you!

Let me know if you use it. I may try it out. I will let you go first!

[Furlough Frank]

Re: In search of period receipts for Snapping Turtle

Fasten the meat with locust needles on freshly split cedar shingles. Salt & pepper to taste. Roast meat slowly over a green smoky hickory fire till done. Throw away meat eat the shingle.

YOS

Frank E. Campbell

"Edible - good to eat and wholesome to digest, as a worm to a toad, a toad to a snake, a snake to a pig, a pig to a man, and a man to a worm." - Ambrose Bierce

[Stonewall_Greyfox]

Re: In search of period receipts for Snapping Turtle

http://www.ehow.com/how_2067585_make-turtle-soup.html

I am not too sure how it will taste but is from the 19th century.

You should be able to get everything you need at the local store too unlike some of the receipts I have seen.

It also looks like you may have enough turtle to make several batches.

Have fun chopping the turtles head off! Do not let it snap at you!

Let me know if you use it. I may try it out. I will let you go first!

Paul,

Thanks for the receipt...turtle was dispatched yesterday, and left to drain overnight. I was fortunate that the turtle was more than a little dazed when he went into the cooler with the croaker and clams.

My next task is to remove the shell/bones from the meat, and prepare for soup (hopefully tomorrow)...and should still have plenty of meat for the freezer.

Paul B.

[Spinster]

Re: In search of period receipts for Snapping Turtle

From the Feeding America site:

http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/index.html

The Complete Confectioner, Pastry-Cook, and Baker: Plain and Practical Directions for Making Confectionary and Pastry, and for Baking; With Upwards of Five Hundred Receipts . . .With Additions and Alterations by Parkinson, Practical Confectioner, Chestnut Street.
Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1864, c. 1849 W.A. Leary.



97. Green Turtle Soup.--This recipe has been collated from the best authorities, to which is added our own experience. The day before you wish to serve up the soup it will be necessary to cut off the head of your turtle, and place it in a position to allow all the blood to be drained from it. The next morning open the turtle, being careful to do so without breaking the gall. After cutting all around the upper and lower shell, drain the water off, divide the meat in small pieces, and wash clean and carefully. Then put the shells in a large pot of boiling water, where you let them remain until you find they separate from the flesh readily; but no longer, as the softer parts must be boiled again. Keep the liquor and stew the bones thoroughly; after which it is to be used for moistening the broth. The flesh of the interior parts, and the four legs and head, must be cooked in the following manner. Mask the bottom of a large stew-pan with slices of ham, over which lay two or three knuckles of veal, according to the size of the turtle; and over the veal place the inside flesh of the turtle, covering the whole with the other parts of the turtle. Add to it about a gallon of the liquor in which the bones were stewed, and place on the fire until thoroughly done, which you must ascertain by sticking your knife into the fleshy part of the meat; and if no blood issue from it, add another gallon of the liquor. Then throw in a bunch of the stalks of sweet marjoram, lemon thyme, bay leaves, savoury, common thyme, and sweet basil; also a handful of parsley and green onions, and a large onion stuck with cloves, and a few grains of pepper. Let the whole stew until thoroughly done, say from three to four hours. The leaves of the herbs are to be used for making a sauce, to be described hereafter. When the larger portions of the turtle are done, place them aside to be used when wanted. When the flesh is also thoroughly done, drain on a dish, and make a white thickening very thin, and add to it through a tamis some portion of the liquor of the bones, and place on the fire until it boils; and, having arrived at the proper consistency, neither too thick nor too thin, set the stew-pan on the side of the stove, and skim off all the white scum and fat that arises to the surface. Then cut the softer parts--green fat and white meat--into dice of about an inch square (without any waste,) and add to the sauce, which must be allowed to simmer gently until


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sufficiently done, when it must be taken off, at the same time skimming it carefully. Then take the leaves of the sweet basil, sweet marjoram, lemon thyme, common thyme and winter savoury, together with a handful of parsley, some green onions, a large onion cut in four pieces, with a few leaves of mace; put the whole in a stew-pan with a quarter of a pound of butter. Let this simmer on a slow fire until melted, and add a bottle of Madeira and a small lump of sugar, and boil gently for an hour. Then rub it through a tamis, and add to your sauce, which you must boil until no white scum arises; then with a skimmer drain out all the bits of turtle, and put them into a clean stew-pan, and pass the sauce through a tamis into the stew-pan containing the turtle, and proceed as follows. Take out the fleshy part of a leg of veal, say about one pound, scrape off all the meat without leaving any of the fat or sinews in it, and soak in about the same quantity (one pound) of crumbs of bread, which, when well soaked, squeeze and put into a mortar with the veal, a small quantity of calf's udder, a little butter, the yolks of four eggs hard boiled, a little cayenne pepper, salt and spices, and pound the whole very fine. Then thicken the mixture with two whole eggs, and the yolk of a third; and, to try its consistency, put it in boiling hot water; if you find it too thin, add the yolk of another egg. When it is perfected, take one half of it, and add some chopped parsley. Cook it and roll into balls the size of the yolk of an egg; poach them in boiling water with a little salt. The other half must be made also into balls, and place the whole on a sieve to drain. Before serving your soup, squeeze the juice of two or three lemons, with a little cayenne pepper, and pour it into the soup. The fins may be served as a side dish, with a little turtle sauce. When lemon juice is used, be careful that the lemons are good; a musty lemon will spoil all the turtle, and too much will destroy its flavour.

[Vuhginyuh]

Re: In search of period receipts for Snapping Turtle

...skimming it carefully...

I cant emphasize the need to skim enough. Doesn't matter how long he was sucking up fresh clean water prior to the killin'...skim that sucker. And cook it as you would any tough game.

Where did it get it?

[Spinster]

Re: In search of period receipts for Snapping Turtle

Mrs. Chadwick' s Cook Book 1852

Real Turtle Soup

Line the bottom of your pot with a pound and half of lean ham, cut in slices; also cut in pieces a small leg of veal, with all the white meat of the turtle and two fowls. Put it over a clear fire with more than water enough to cover, or use two or three ladlesful of broth; Be careful not to let it stick to the bottom. Boil in another stewpan the liver, lights, heart, and kidneys, and the fat you have put aside. Take some of the liquor the other part has been boiled in, cover your stewpan, add to it some more sweet herbs, twenty four grains of allspice, six blades of mace, two large onions, four carrots, half an ounce of whole pepper and salt to taste. Let it simmer for four hours then strain the soup through a hair sieve

Put the green part of the turtle that has been cut in pieces and nicely cleanedwith two bottles of Madeira, in the same; when it has boiled a few minutes with the turtle , add to it some broth; then put a pound and a quarter of of butter into your stewpan; when it is melted add four spoonfulls of flour, stir it on the fire, till the flour is a fine brown color, then pour some of your broth with it, mix it well, and strain into your soup through a hair sieve; cut your liver, lights, hearts, kidneys into mouthfuls, and put them into your soup with a half teaspoon of Cayenne, and, if you have it four tablespoons of essence of anchovies.

Okay, this was the first one I started transcribing from the dusty copy on my shelf, before I remembered the Feeding of America site. The receipt goes on for another two pages, and I'm tired of typing. Sister comes unglued every time the receipt starts talking about a hair sieve, but this is awfully similar to the process and ingredients I saw in Mama's kitchen in the 1960's, except she added frog as well. No difference was made in snapping turtles, terrapins, or anything else that got caught.

[Stonewall_Greyfox]

Re: In search of period receipts for Snapping Turtle

I cant emphasize the need to skim enough. Doesn't matter how long he was sucking up fresh clean water prior to the killin'...skim that sucker. And cook it as you would any tough game.

I'm new to alot of this cooking stuff...having grown up usually being on the recieving end...and not involved so much in the preperation. Could we define what is meant by skimming...and the importance of this?

Where did it get it?

Rte. 17 somewhere between Fredericksburg and '66.

[VA-Patriot'61]

Re: In search of period receipts for Snapping Turtle

Paul,
Well at least it wasn't roadkill. Did you get the idea about snapping turtles when you went to Yorktown? We have armadillos down here, when you're ready to try one of them let me know and I'll finally have a reason to get rid of our back porch pet. Let me know how the turtle turns out.

[Spinster]

Re: In search of period receipts for Snapping Turtle

Skimming--there will be icky stuff rising to the top of the simmering water. Lift that floaty stuff off with a big shallow spoon, or better yet, a skimmer, a flat perforated disk with a long handle. Throw icky stuff away--you do not wish to eat it.

Some of this is mitigated by putting up the turtle in a pen and feeding it grain and fresh water for a few weeks. When I was a child, one actually loaded them up and took them down to a cool room made for the purpose, and the feller would pay you on the spot. About once a month the Campbell's man came and picked them up.

[Vuhginyuh]

Snapping Turtle Schmaltz

skimming...and the importance of this?

When its boiled it produces a floating scum the color of a dirty sneaker or a three week old R-Braves hot dog lost behind the rotisserie of hell. You will know it when you see it. Skim it off with a spoon or if you are tough use a drinking straw. Dad calls it gungarunga...low tide river mud...its appropriate.

[Abrams]

Re: In search of period receipts for Snapping Turtle

I always put the snapper in a washtub and fill it with clean water. Put a piece of plywood on top the washtub so the turtle does not escape, and weight it down with a concrete block, or similar. Make sure its in a good shady spot. Turtles are strong, and motivated to escape.

Change the water a couple times a day at first, and then at least once a day for about 4-5 days. The water bath seems to clean them out, and helps them taste better.

Cleaning them is a horror though. I hate to clean something that fights back. Even after the head has been removed for hours, they will resist your efforts to remove the meat, heh.

They are good eating though. Dad always like to flour them up and pan fry the pieces like chicken. Occasionally a mulligan was made.

[Stonewall_Greyfox]

Follow-up

1st My hat is off to anyone who can clean a turtle in under 3 hours...it didn't help me that the shell was cracked...so I needed to clean (remove inner organs) and mostly skin the turtle before placing in the stock pot...also realizing that my stock pot wasn't quite big enough.

Skimming...thanks for the heads up...this became readily apparant once the meat went to boil. While I've removed most of the sludge or as Garrison called it "gungarunga" from the creature...I realize now, why it's recommended to keep it live and in clean water vats for a few days (unfortunately, this was not an option).

Note: When cleaning snapping turtles, one must be of both sound stomach and mind...as the smells emanating from the creature are rather potent!

The meat, is now washed and parboiled...and in the fridge awaiting the stew which will be made this weekend.

Thanks to all who provided period receipts...now the trouble will be deciding which one to proceed with.

While it's too late for the shell at hand...does anyone know how to preserve the shell to be used in making items such as snuff boxes, pill boxes...etc.?

Paul B.

[Charles Heath]

Re: Follow-up

Paul,

You can still buy skimmers new, but most any junktique store will have a half dozen long handled skimmers hanging on the wall for a song. I hardly ever use one, but when you need it they come in handy. Plus, they are fun to use to swat Carpenter Bees, as they make a nice cracking sound as the exoskeleton crushes on impact.

Turtle is some fine eating, but tends to start that argument over whether terrapin, snapper, alligator snapper, or painted was the best flavor. That reminds me, that there used to be an old girl who would noodle for turtles in the lead ditches of Pasquotank County. She was missing a couple of fingers, as you may well imagine.

[Vuhginyuh]

Gungarunga is Tuscarora for 'you clean the ******* turtle'.

My hat is off to anyone who can clean a turtle in under 3 hours.

Here is a beginners tool kit...and before I get the moderator hat smack I know this isn't a period reply;

http://www.woodmanspal.com/

http://www.dexter-russell.com/Search_details_non_login_version.asp?id=11747&group_name=Sani-Safe.asp

http://www.dexter-russell.com/Search...=Sani-Safe.asp D-R makes a few ash handle knives that may pass the test in the field. The four inch checkered handle fish knife is actually very nice, after you buff the modern etching off the blade. http://www.dexter1818.com/Search_det...raditional.asp

...why it's recommended to keep it live and in clean water vats for a few days...

...as the smells emanating from the creature are rather potent!

http://www.edarley.com/finditem/17436