Got supper for tomorrow night

[helomech]

My pond has been supplying me with lots of food over the years, here is just another example. Not to kill the unkillable beast tomorrow.

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii247/helomech1973/PA170014_zps56562b17.jpg (http://s266.photobucket.com/user/helomech1973/media/PA170014_zps56562b17.jpg.html)

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii247/helomech1973/PA170013_zpsf81bbcec.jpg (http://s266.photobucket.com/user/helomech1973/media/PA170013_zpsf81bbcec.jpg.html)

[ditchmedic]

I caught one this summer while fishing for Bowfin. I killed it in my apartment kitchen 2 days before I moved out.

That was final f-you to apartment living. I love turtle but hate cleaning em

[helomech]

Killing them is a PITA. They just wont die, and they fight you while you clean them.

[Sniper-T]

A good set of tin snips, and they're cleaned in like two minutes. I wish all god's creatures were as easy to clean as a turtle. They even come with their own tray to hold the edibles while you work.

mmm i love turtles...

[helomech]

A good set of tin snips, and they're cleaned in like two minutes. I wish all god's creatures were as easy to clean as a turtle. They even come with their own tray to hold the edibles while you work.

mmm i love turtles...

I am way slower than that. The skin is sooooo hard to get off, and the damn thing is always fighting you. Touch a leg and it pulls it in, or tries to scratch you with the other one. I got some pics of me cleaning it if anyone is interested.

[Sniper-T]

try this with the next one...

poke him in the nose repeatedly with a stick, and when he bites it, pull his head out and cut it off.

let him bleed out

drop him into boiling water for about two minutes (like blanching a tomato).

pull him out and cut through the eight connectors between the top and bottom shell with the snips.

grab 1/2 in each hand and rip him in two.

keep the innards that you like, dump the rest, and the meat scrapes off the top shell nicely with a spoon (either side of spine), the parboiling should make the skin slide off the legs and tail.

Bon appetite.

BTW, the beheading is only in there for the squeamish. treat him like a lobster!

little guys like that are usually tender enough to skin without blanching, in which case the snipping of the connectors pisses him off, and ripping in two finishes him.

use a filleting or a boning knife and slice the skin off like the skin off a fish.

[helomech]

I cut his head off about 3 hours before I started cleaning him. I am not eve sure it slowed him down at all.

[Dropy]

We did soft shell turtle that way. Cut a little hole in the rear of his shell to hang him from a hook stuck in a tree. then poke his nose till he got pissed and grabbed the stick. Pull hard on the stick till his neck is fully extended and chop it off! But i have only ever eaten soft shelll in florida.

[helomech]

Getting his head out was no problem. Just waited from him to stick it out a bit, and grabbed it with a pair of loppers and popped it right off.

[izzyscout21]

How are you fixing him up, Helo?

ive yet to have turtle that i liked. I think it was most likely due to the cooking method.

[helomech]

How are you fixing him up, Helo?

ive yet to have turtle that i liked. I think it was most likely due to the cooking method.

I made a soup. Made a roux, browned some onions. Boilded the turtle to get the meat off the bones, then used the water from boiling to add back to the soup as it was cooking. Cut up some green peppers, red peppers, and then just seasoned to taste. My only mistake was I think I cooked the turtle too long, and it got a big tough. It was nice and tender after I boiled it, but after cooking it got a little stringy (not to bad though). The flavor was great, I even threw all the eggs in, along with a few chicken eggs, and some corn.

[Sniper-T]

low and slow... once you get the meat off the bones, hit a slow simmer, and let it bubble slowly.

[ditchmedic]

I always hatch the eggs. Sometimes they hatch just right and I restock the local turtle hole. Other times, You get premature turtles with massive tumors.

[helomech]

These eggs where no where ready for an incubator. They tasted good though.