A couple of years agoI was told about a book called The Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine, by Steven Rinella. In the book,Rinella tells the tale of being given an old cookbook written by AugusteEscoffier and being inspired to have a feast of all the things he hunts andgathers. Rinella talks about how, pre-Escoffier, he once ate snapping turtleand didn't enjoy the turtle meat because it tasted like a mucky swamp. But thenhe reads Escoffier's book and in it, Escoffier says that turtles should betaken alive and kept alive for at least a week prior to butchering; the turtleneeds to be kept in clean water, changing the water daily so the turtle has anopportunity to cleanse its system. In theory, this extended process will affectthe way the meat tastes. These instructions convinced Rinella to try turtleagain, and he enjoyed it the second time around. After reading Rinella’s book,I have been intrigued by turtles and have wanted to trycatching and cooking one myself. My only problem was: Where I was going to getmy hands on a live snapping turtle?
Here in Minnesota,snapping turtles are actually pretty common; I have had them in my yard andhave seen them around the nearby lake. The only problem is that I only see themin the early spring until the beginning of June, but then after that they havea tendency of disappearing. Why is that a problem, you might ask? Well, here inMinnesota, it is illegal to take turtles in the months of May and June.Starting July 1st, it is legal for licensed anglers to take turtles, but if youwant to use traps or trot lines you need to buy a special license. That leavesonly one other way to catch turtles: to get into the water and find them.Still, I have yet to see a snapping turtle after July 1st; it’s almost as ifthey know I am looking for them.
On several occasions,I’ve tried to find the turtles by walking in the water and feeling along thebanks of small ponds and lakes. I had read that the best way to find them is toget in the water and check the banks, as they bury themselves in the sand andmud. I am not sure what I would have done had that actually worked. Digging aturtle out of the mud could be somewhat dangerous, especially if you didn’tknow where the head was. Snapping turtles are ill tempered and have tremendousbite strength, and large snappers could cause permanent damage if they were toget a hold of a finger. But all my efforts were unsuccessful anyway, and Ineeded to find another way of getting live snapping turtles.
Snapping turtles, Myrtle and Meany
Fortunately for me, Iknow a guy. Several weeks ago, I was out fishing on the Mississippi River nearWabasha with my friend Eric, and we ran into Tim Adams; Tim is a friend of Eric's and runsSchafer Fisheries northern collection site in Pepin, WI, and he is also one ofthe stars of the Outdoor Channel’s new show Bottom Feeders. I asked Tim if hehad gotten any turtles in lately, and he said he had several, so I went overSchafer’s and picked up a couple of turtles.
Once I had the turtleshome, I kept them in separate tubs out in the garage and changed their waterdaily. The first couple of days were absolutely disgusting; I could not believethe crap that came out of those turtles. The bigger of the two had a 3-inchchunk of tree branch come out of it, and the little one had all sorts offeathers come out. After about three days, the water started getting clearer,but there was still a lot of sand and debris that was coming out, so I decidedto keep the turtles alive for 2 whole weeks, still changing the water on adaily basis. I had them in the garage for so long, my daughter ended up namingthem Myrtle and Meany. Meany got his name because every time I changed hiswater he would hiss and snap at me.When I finally decided to butcher the turtles, the water was almost asclean as when I had put it in.
When it came time tobutcher the turtles, I was a little weary about the process. I live in the cityso I wasn’t going to be able to shoot the turtles to kill them. I looked on theInternet and found several methods for killing turtles; all of them involvedcutting the head off. I don’t usually have a problem with the killing aspect ofhunting, but most of the killing I do is from a distance. Cutting the head offa live animal is something I have only done with chickens, and they don’tusually put up a fight. What I had read was you need to get the turtles to biteon to something, then you pull there neck out and cut the head off with an axeor hatchet. Let me tell you, it’s not that easy; first off, getting them tobite onto something doesn’t work. I got them to bite onto a dish towel butevery time I would pull to extend the neck, they would just let go. I ended upusing a different method that involved a large hook under the jaw. And gettingthe turtles to extend their necks is another problem all together. They don’tjust stick their necks out – both turtles fought quite a bit and the wholeprocess was far more grisly than expected.
Turtle meat
Once the heads wereremoved, I was supposed to hang the turtles for one hour so the blood coulddrain out of them. I did this and then went to start the butchering process,but even without their heads, both turtles were still very active and wouldclaw and scratch at me whenever I tried to make incisions into them. I ended upleaving them for about 2 1/2 hours before they were docile enough to cut. Thewhole butchering process really left a bad taste in my mouth and if I ever dothis again I will have to find a better technique.
When I finally got thebutchering done, the whole procedure had taken me about 4 hours. What I endedup with was six pounds of turtle meat. Turtle meat is very interesting; I hadread that a turtle has seven different kinds of meat in it. To my untrainedeye, I could easily make out four different kinds of meat: a white fibrous meatthat looked very reptilian similar to alligator or snake, a more dense whitemeat that looked similar to poultry, a red meat that looked similar to pheasantlegs, and a darker red meat that resembled duck
The first thing I dowith any meat that I have never cooked before is fry it. I find that frying isa very easy way to cook things and gives me a base line to build off of. Alsofrying is a nice way to ease into new meats, it is familiar technique and givesme an idea of what I can do with the meat. I soaked some of the meat in buttermilk, then dredged it inflour and fried it. I had read that turtle can be very tough and requires extracooking, so after I fried it, I put it in a 300 degree oven for 30 minutes.What I ended up with were turtle nuggets; I made some barbecue sauce and hadbarbecued turtle. The meat was sweet and kind of tender – it wasn’t tough butit had some chew to it. I tried to separate out the different types of meat andtry them separately to see if there was any difference in flavor, but the onlyreal difference was between the light and dark meat. I preferred the dark meat,as it seemed to have a richer flavor; the white meat had a very neutral flavorand didn’t really taste like anything. In that way, I suppose it reminded me ofchicken.
Fried turtle
When I started lookingfor recipes for turtle, most of what I found was turtle stew, fried turtle, andof course turtle soup. I have only ever eaten turtle in soup and once in abuffet in Hattiesburg, MS where it was fried to the consistency of tree bark. Ihave heard many people compare turtle meat to chicken, so when I thought aboutwhat to do with it, only one thing popped into my mind: General Tso’s Turtle. Ihave been making General Tso’s about once a month ever since trying Hank Shaw’srecipe for General Tso’s Pheasant. It is hands down the best version I haveever had, and after the first time you make it, it isn’t all that hard. I didn’treally change anything in the recipe except that after frying the turtle I didbake it in the oven at 300 degrees for 30 minutes.
This was some of thebest General Tso’s I have ever had; the turtle was not at all tough or chewy.It did have a definite unique texture, but was not tough. The chunks of whitemeat were very neutral in flavor and all I really got was the General Tso’sflavor. The dark meat chunks had more flavor and I could easily identify that Iwasn’t eating chicken. The dark meat tasted a lot like alligator and had asimilar texture: sweet and nutty with that very distinctive reptilian flavorthat you know once you have had it before. I believe that letting the turtlespurge themselves beforehand really helped, because there wasn’t a bit of swampyflavor in the meat.
General Tso's Turtle
General Tso’sTurtle
Adapted from HankShaw
Serves 4
Turtle meat soakingIngredients:
Marinade:
- 4tablespoons corn starch
- 2egg yolks
- 1tablespoon soy sauce
Sauce:
- 1/2cup chicken stock
- 1tablespoon soy sauce
- 1tablespoon brown sugar
- 1tablespoon Chinese black vinegar
- 2tablespoons tomato paste mixed with 2 tablespoons water
- 1teaspoon corn starch
Stir-fry:
- 1pound turtle meat, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 3tablespoons canola
- 8dried hot tien tsien chiles, broken in half and seeds shaken out (use less ifyou don’t want it spicy)
- 1tablespoon grated ginger
- 3garlic cloves, sliced thin
- 6 green onions,chopped
Instructions:
- Mix the marinadeingredients together and then add the turtle meat. Let sit for about an hour.
- Heatcanola oil or your favorite frying oil to about 350 degrees and fry the turtlein small batches, being careful to not let the pieces stick together. After allthe pieces are fried, place them on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for 30minutes at 300 degrees.
- Whilethe turtle is baking in the oven, mix together the sauce and set aside.
- Ina large pan or wok, heat 3 tablespoons of canola oil and stir fry the chiliesfor about a minute, then add the ginger and cook for another minute, lastly addthe garlic and stir it a couple of times in the pan.
- Addall the turtle pieces and the green onions to the oil. Pour the sauce mixtureover the turtle and stir until it thickens. Once the sauce thickens, serve theturtle over rice with chopped fresh green onions on top.
Jamie Carlsonlives in Burnsville, MN with his wife, Amanda, and their two kids Eleanor and Charlie. He works as an Rn at the Minneapolis VA hospital. He enjoys hunting, fishing, foraging, and, of course, cooking. He believes that all food can be tasty if it is prepared with care, and he writes about his adventures cooking everything from Pickled Venison Heart to Roasted Dove on his food blog,You Have to Cook it Right. Follow him at@youcookitright. He writes theHunting for Dinnerseries for SGT; his last post was Hunting for Dinner: The Perfect Fish Fry.
