Snapper soup

Just seen a new one. Diners, Driveins and Dives was at a place where they served snapper soup, somewhere on the east coast. This soup isn’t new but they way they fixed it was new too me. They put the whole snapper in the pot, not cleaned with just the head off.

When it was done cooking they lifted this whole snapper out of the pot, layed it in a pan big enough to hold it and pulled the top shell from the bottom, easily. Then they pulled the meat easily from the bones. It didn’t show the inner organs but I’m sure they probably threw those away. They also threw the skin. The whole recipie looked good in this snapper soup, not turtle stew. A new one for me on the way they cooked it and they had a full restaurant and alot were eating the snapper soup.

Snapper is an excellent meat. I really enjoy it. The problem is you really need to be able to get past the stink when you catch them and process them.

Had a guy that was always down at a catfish spot that would always ask me for the snappers I’d catch down there to make soup. Always wanted to try it.

Watched plenty cleaned as a kid…. your right… stinky smelly swamp…

Put them in a barrel with clean water and change it every other day and after about two weaks or so the swamp smell will be mostly gone. Then you can kill them and clean them without the bad smell. And they are Great eating. We cut some into bite size peices and have turtle nuggets to go along with fried fish.

I have been fortunate to eat snapping turtle quite a few times. They are delicious and the neck is my favorite part. That said, I wouldn’t go through the trouble to clean one myself -think suirrel with a big nut- lot’s of work for small reward.

I’ve had turtle soup many times and had the experience to clean two personally. It is a lot of work and that was too many years for me to recall the whole process. The guy I was with wanted turtle steaks and these were 20-30 pounds each from a local pond in IL.

Turtle soup is one of my favorites but it’s been a long time

I have had some really good snapper 2. ……..rrr

I’m gonna try and eat some snapper when I get home.
If the gf let’s me……….

I find turtles rather easy to clean. You gotta know the tricks. I love trapping turtles in the summertime. I try to find as many ponds as possible.

Always check the snapper to make sure it isn’t smelly before you eat it. I learned the hard way.

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I’m gonna try and eat some snapper when I get home.
If the gf let’s me……….

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is it called the snapper because it is mean and usually to difficult to deal with almost all the time?

When I was about 14 we had a friend of the family that we went hunting turtles in the winter with. We got a few and my dad went with Verle a few more times and got a couple more. We used to gig them in the mud along creeks.

I always wondered who the guys were that got the turtle for a restaurant in Czech town here in town and I finially talked to one of the guys who was in on the turtle catching last year who got the turtle with his friends. This was a czech restaurant that served delecious food and on saturdays they served turtle and if you weren’t sitting down and had ordered by noon it was sold out.

My dad cleaned them and my mom used to just roll them in flour and pan fry them and occasionally make a turtle roast with vegetables just like a beef roast. Its been awhile but I think my dad said turtles have 7 or 8 diffrent kinds of meat, all with diffrent flavors. All I know is that it was delecious.

Back when we giged them we used to look for warm spots on the creek bottom and gig there but when I talked to this old turtle hunter he said they giged around logs laying on the creek bottom, he thought the slight warming of the ground by the sun hitting the logs is why they were around the logs. I’m thinking about making some cages and setting a few this summer to get a few, its been awhile since I ate turtle and anytime I can get my hands on some I’ll eat it.

Just north of here was a lake that the dam gave way last year. Greg, a Czech that I’ve known since I was a kid now lives there and he said the lake was full of snappers and even though the lake is now gone the turtles are still there and he said some big ones too, so maybe I’ll try there, eigther there or the backwaters of the Cedar river and the creeks that run into them from my jonboat, do that while running dittypoles.

Ive always wanted to try turtle, but Ive also heard that some of the meat in a snapping turtle is poisonous. Someone tell me thats wrong and Ill gladly fry some up this year.

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Ive always wanted to try turtle, but Ive also heard that some of the meat in a snapping turtle is poisonous. Someone tell me thats wrong and Ill gladly fry some up this year.

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This is true (not)….you should give me every Snapping Turtle you catch

snapper is awesome. i personally wouldnt waste it in soup. brown and bake it like chicken.

i then let ma nature clean the shell and make clocks from the shell.

turtle scampi = fried in garlic butter…

Mark

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I’m gonna try and eat some snapper when I get home.
If the gf let’s me……….

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is it called the snapper because it is mean and usually to difficult to deal with almost all the time?

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Exactly!

Vike,,,If any part of a snapper was poisonious I’d be dead and gone along time ago, you could probably eat the shell and it wouldn’t hurt you. Its hard to beat any part of a snapper floured and fried in butter under low heat, good stuff.

I think the rumors about them being poisonous come from the deadly poisonous salmonella bacteria in their shells.

Most people with some age behind them remember the half dollar size turtles that were sold at Woolworth’s and other pet stores. They stopped selling them because of the salmonella poisoning people (kids) were getting handling them, then cross contaminating food ect.

Maybe you can’t eat the shell, maybe fully cooked you could lol. I’ll take a double order of 50 lb turtle shell please.

Here’s a bit more from the FDA website…

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“All reptiles and amphibians are commonly contaminated with Salmonella,” says Joseph C. Paige, D.V.M., a Consumer Safety Officer in the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) Center for Veterinary Medicine. “But it is the small turtles that most often are put in contact with young children, where consequences of infection are likely to be severe.” Because of this health risk, since 1975, FDA has banned the sale of small turtles with a shell less than four inches long.

“Young children are ingenious in constructing ways to infect themselves,” says Paige. “They put the small turtles in their mouths or, more often, they touch the turtles or dangle their fingers in the turtle tank water and then put their hands in their mouths. Also, sometimes the tanks and reptile paraphernalia are cleaned in the kitchen sink, and food and eating utensils get cross-contaminated.”

Surfaces such as countertops, tabletops, bare floors, and carpeting can also become contaminated with the bacteria if the turtle is allowed to roam on them. The bacteria may survive for a long period of time on these surfaces.

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Excellent information guys. Not gonna lie, my mouths been watering for the last couple hours. Now just gotta wait for the thaw.

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If any part of a snapper was poisonious I’d be dead and gone along time ago

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Can I get a AMEN !!!

The liver makes excellant catfish bait.