Cleaning and cooking snapping turtle

[David LaPell]

I am hoping to really get into trapping and harvesting snapping turtles for food this summer. My grandfather did it years ago, but I was way too young to remember what he did and how he cleaned them. Anyone ever clean them out, and what are some good recipes?

[nhrifle]

Closest I ever came was when I snagged one by the arm while fishing. When I finished dragging it to the surface, I came face to face with one of the most ornery critters I have ever seen. It hissed and thrashed and I'm pretty sure it wanted to eat me. I cut the line and left. He can keep the lure.

[tomme boy]

I remember Gramps taking the air hose and blowing them up. He said it separated the skin from the meat. I don't remember where he inserted it so, ???? I remember him and some of the uncles would go out to a local swamp and they would walk out into the swamp with poles. They used the poles to search for them by probing the areas in front of them. I remember 60-80lb turtles on the kitchen table getting cut up. Grams would cook them, but not clean them.

Man you got me hungry for them now. There is a fishery down the road that sells it cut up by the pound. Might be a road trip on Monday.

[kenjuudo]

Fill your chainsaw with vegetable oil

Seriously, latch onto the bottom jaw with a pair of channel locks, step on the shell, stretch the neck out, cut the head off (don't waste any good neck meat). Next remove the feet at the wrist or you'll get cut worse than the turtle. Separate the skin front and back at the shell line and pull the hide, vise grips help.

Run a knife along the line that joins the back and belly shells, then use the knife to fillet the belly shell from the carcass, repeat to take the front and rear quarter from the top shell, you may need pruners to sever the backbone from the shell. Dump the innards and get the loin meat from the shell by snipping the little ribs with side cuts or pruners.

jim

[Olevern]

When we usta pull them up outah the mud (when I was a young'un") we would bring them in live and put them in a pen in the back yard, keep water available and give them two or three days before we killed them. The time away from the marsh and mud allowed them to cleanse their systems out and resulted in sweeter tasting meat (or so we were told).

We mostly trapped them with snapper fykes, threw them into our old 18 foot garvey and let them run around in the bottom as we motored home. When you got several (or more) 35-40 pounders loose in the bottom of the boat, you had to keep your feet up on the gunnels and be ready to move one if it threatened the person driving the boat in the stern. You just grabbed them by the tail and moved them back away from the driver.

Such fun times.

[Boz330]

Next remove the feet at the wrist or you'll get cut worse than the turtle.

Now you tell me. I only cleaned one in my life and the feet were the worst part of dealing with him. I'll have to remember that just in case I try this again.

Bob

[bruce drake]

Also check your state game laws. Some of them actually regulate the harvest of snappers the same as small game.

Bruce

[flounderman]

Years ago I trapped them in catfish hoop nets. Had to leave the net stick out of the water so they could get air. The old timers cleaned them with a sharp hatchet. Mostly holding the hatchet by the head. I watched one clean a snapper in minutes. Just unreal how fast he did it. I was selling them live to a place in virginia and they used steam that took off a layer of skin and sold the meat with the white skin still on it. Just cut the legs and neck out. don't remember but they probably left the feet on.

[S.B.]

Air hose previously mentioned works good but, lacking that hatchet to split the shell then dig out the meat best way you can is my only suggestion. Always remove head the feet first(will save a lot of fingers)!
I flour and brown them is skillet the cook for all day in slow cooker. You can't pick up a bone, meat falls off the bone. I've heard there are 23 flavors of meat in a snappers neck? Nothing like chicken.
Soft shells make good soup also.
Steve

[427smith]

One thing I didn't see suggested is I used to get a 5 gallon bucket of water as hot as I could get it, then cut the snappers head off and drop him in. It took all the death struggles out, and left mr turtle clean and almost white. If he's to big for a 5 gallon bucket It'll take a lot longer to bake.

[Lead Freak]

I remember a snapper that I shot with a fishing arrow in the early sixties. I stopped by friend's house on the way back home with some friends to cut the head off (I got tired of holding it away from my leg while walking). After stretching out his neck and cutting off his neck, a friend (Calvin--it was Gus Levens) started kicking it around with his canvas shoe. It clamped down hard on his toes and we had to use a pair of plyers and a screw driver to get it off the toe of his shoes. He carefully picked up and threw it as far as he could into the weeds. After a 20 min. walk and a pair of wire cutters to cut off the claws, I used a sabre saw to cut the 4 corners of the bottom shell. When I cut off the bottom of the shell the heart was still beating? One tough critter.

[S.B.]

Lead Freak, yes they were here along with the dinosaurs.
Steve

[aspangler]

Fill your chainsaw with vegetable oil

Seriously, latch onto the bottom jaw with a pair of channel locks, step on the shell, stretch the neck out, cut the head off (don't waste any good neck meat). Next remove the feet at the wrist or you'll get cut worse than the turtle. Separate the skin front and back at the shell line and pull the hide, vise grips help.

Run a knife along the line that joins the back and belly shells, then use the knife to fillet the belly shell from the carcass, repeat to take the front and rear quarter from the top shell, you may need pruners to sever the backbone from the shell. Dump the innards and get the loin meat from the shell by snipping the little ribs with side cuts or pruners.

jim

Yup! That's the way we do it in Tennessee. Deep fry in veggie oil after breadind in flour/meal mix seasoned with salt and pepper. YUM!