Caught a large snapper by hand yesterday

My greatgrandmother could skin a turttle faster than anything. She had 2 30 gal drums of water. Rotate the turtle every other day to flush him out (Mud) . this made it tast better. Then she used pruning shears to seperate the shell, then cut out the meat. We arte turtle soup, fried turtle and turtle dumplings. Goos stuff. Now to go out and find me 1. I'm hungry
 
We always cleaned them out in a horse trough. Change the water out until it stays clear, and then they are ready to kill and clean.


Chuck
 
moonwilson said:
I've had snappin' turtle- it's delicious. And yes, the heart does keep beating after you cut it out of them- for like a half hour!, And yes, they do continue to bite after you lop their heads off. Turtles are not terribly bright- it takes them a while to figure out that they're dead. I've never personally butchered one, but I've seen it done a few times. Basically you chop around the edges of the bottom of the shell to separate the top part from the bottom- kind of like a big, ugly clam. Then cut out the stuff that looks like meat. The skin on the legs and neck peels off pretty easily. Mmmm mmmm! That's good eatin'!
Click to expand...

Yep, that's about right. Now I'd like to see turtleman clean one. The guy is amazing. I would never stick my hand around a turtle where I couldn't see. He makes meat so you have to hand it to him. I would like to see him clean one. He probably fires up the air compressor, attaches a basketball needle, blows it up to separate the skin from the meat with a blast of air, split the shell on the sides with a hatchet, cut the skin from the shell, peel her open. Remove the meat and use the shell for a plate after boiling the meat in his paint can stewpot.
 
Being from KY myself, I've had turtle a few times (plus some other things I'll not eat again unless I have too) and I'll agree it's pretty tasty. Never seen anyone clean one like Loosearrow suggests but it does sound a lot faster than the way we used to do it (pretty much like moonwilson suggests). One thing I did learn from the video though is how to tell if it's male or female. I never knew that the concave bottom shell meant they were males, I just assumed some had that dip and some didn't.

I did see a second video of turtleman and he was dressed a lot nicer and riding around in a new truck so he must be making pretty good money now.

David
 
Carolina River Rat said:
Where are you from, Fishshooter?
Click to expand...

Northwest Florida. You look like a guy I use to hang out with. He was a heck of a picker and knew all the old, old classic country stuff. A bunch of us would hang out by the river standing a fire, drinking beer and sing along with him all night; that was a long time ago, great memories. You don't play per chance?
 
fishshooter said:
Northwest Florida. You look like a guy I use to hang out with. He was a heck of a picker and knew all the old, old classic country stuff. A bunch of us would hang out by the river standing a fire, drinking beer and sing along with him all night; that was a long time ago, great memories. You don't play per chance do you?
Click to expand...

Sounds like we have the same general idea about what's fun:D:thumbup:. I play a bit of bass guitar, drums, and I can sing fairly well. Never could get the hang of the six-string. Bass and drums are the Neanderthal's instruments:p.
 
Turtle soup is delicious. Although I have never cleaned them myself, my dad has always done that. I insisted I did it once and he told me he wanted to do it so it gets 100% clean. Of course, he had more experience, and I wanted it to taste the best it could, so I let him..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top