# How to Butcher a Turtle



## wyogoob

I come from turtle country, along the Mississippi River. We had Snapping Turtles and Softshell Turtles, Sliders and Cooters, Map Turtles and Painted Turtles, Stinkpots and Musk Turtles, and as anyone who ever pulled a harrow over sandy Midwest ground knows, Box Turtles (I love Box Turtles, but they are not table fare; maybe some stories later though).

I used to run traps and trot lines especially for turtles. Most of the meat I sold to the local “clubs”, i.e. Elks, Eagles, the Moose Lodge, American Legion….some bars too. Smelt was the preferred bait, taken in April from Lake Michigan by dip netting, and then frozen whole in 25 lb bags. Nothing is slimier or oilier than smelt and nothing comes close to catching turtles like smelt does.

They say turtle has 7 different colors of meat (I always counted 6, and loved to argue the fact, a beer in one hand and a bloody hatchet in the other, all the while whacking on a 20lb Spiny Softshell nailed to a tree, cigarette ashes running down my chest). The tenderloins under the backbone are clear and cook up as white as the driven snow. Then each muscle group gets darker as you go towards the dark meat of the ankles and feet.

I would get 12 to 15 turtles, worth keeping, on a normal night. Usually half were Snappers and half were Softshells. 15 turtles are all anyone wants to clean at one time. Here’s why: 


How to Butcher a Turtle: 
• Store turtles in damp potato sacks in a shady spot away from children. Tie each sack to a combine or corn picker.
• Wearing gloves remove (angry) turtle from sack and aggravate it with a broomstick until he bites down on it.
• Stretch the turtle’s neck out and chop his head off with a hatchet or corn knife.
• Take the hatchet and beat the severed head off the stick into a bucket. Put a lid on the bucket and keep it away from children………and people who drank a lot of beer.
• Put the (still angry) turtle back in the ‘toe sack'.

24 hours later: 
• Do not attempt to put your hand in bucket of severed heads. 
• Wearing gloves, take the (hopefully calm) headless turtle out of the sack.
• With a pair of catfish skinning pliers try to pull the turtle’s front leg out. If you can’t straighten the legs out without getting clawed to pieces, just go to bed and try it in the morning. 
• Still wearing gloves, stretch the legs out and cut off all the claws. 
• With three 20-penny nails nail the turtle to a tree, tail down and the plastron (bottom shell) facing you. Nail around the neck first, then around each thigh.
• Cut around the plastron with a sharp knife.
• Cut the belly and rib meat from the plastron and discard the shell….ah give it to the kids, keep ‘em busy and out of the bucket.
• Still wearing gloves, cut around the skin from the carapace (top shell), starting at the neck.
• With skinning pliers and a sharp knife skin the turtle from top to bottom. 
• Cut the tail off just behind the bung hole. 
• With a sharp knife separate the meat from the shell.
• With a box knife cut the cartilage that holds the backbone to the carapace. Keep the kids out of the bucket.
• Remove the entrails and eggs and discard in the bucket. (If the baby turtles in the eggs are alive, and for some reason you have to take them out of the shells, do not put your finger close to their mouths).
• Cut the meat up by muscle groups (or color). 
• Remove as much fat as possible.

Parboil Before Freezing: 
• In a large pot of water add salt, peppercorns, onions and carrots, Bring to a boil.
• Simmer until the fat melts off and meat is starting to fall off the bones on the feet.
• Drain and rinse in hot water.

Note:
• If you see the neighbor’s dog running around yelping with a Snapping Turtle head embedded on his bloody nose, you didn’t bury the stuff deep enough.


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## duneman101

Thats funny Goob! I skinned quite a few turtles while i lived in Florida, you can't beat a softshell turtle soup. My neighbor had a dog with one ear because of a snapping turtle, you had to make the old duffer put down his beer to tell the story or everyone would get hosed with it, he was a knee slapper.


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## Narient

I tried fried turtle when I lived in Missouri. I dulled a knife extracting the meat & by the time it was done, I swore if I ever did it again, the turtle had to be big enough to warrant all that work. That being said, I find I miss having snappers around. They make for an exciting adventure.


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## GaryFish

When I lived in Nebraska, I took a bunch of scouts out camping and they seemed to find a bunch of snappers. If they weren't snapping at the boys, they were pee'n all over them when the boys would pick them up. Great time. I didn't end up doing any first aid, so it worked out well enough. 

I've got no desire to disassemble one to eat it. Goob - you've got to learn that just because its there, isn't reason enough to have to eat it. There is a reason God put that shell on there and gave it a snapper and sharp claws. Best just leave it alone. There are plenty of other critters with soft skin out there to eat. Oh, and they all have guts too! All the better.


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## wyogoob

There's been some turtle talk in the Fishing section so I'm bumping this.


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## wyogoob

$25/lb here:
http://yhst-46145187252911.stores.yahoo ... forsa.html

$78/5lb here:
http://www.wholey.com/tumefrwicasn.html

$6/lb wholesale at this Iowa turtle farm:
http://lubbockonline.com/stories/110399 ... 9004.shtml


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## GaryFish

Yea, you can count that cash with stubs left over from where your fingers used to be!


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## wyogoob

Snapping turtles have invaded Utah!!!

Now remember, they are illegal to possess in Utah. Uh....this post tells ya how to clean one just in case you get one out of state.

.


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## swbuckmaster

Had to look it up. I'm a visual learner.


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## wyogoob

swbuckmaster said:


> Had to look it up. I'm a visual learner.


If you nail the turtle to a tree or post it goes twice as fast.

.


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## Christine

I chopped off the head and the nailed the body up by its tail. Generally by night they are not too frisky and you can start hacking them up. They still try crawling around a bit. 

We had common snapping turtles not the alligator snappers. They're definitely not worth the hassle unless they're about 15 lbs or bigger. 

I'd find a lot of the females wandering around, looking for places to lay eggs in the spring. I would pick the leeches off of them and let them go. Between traffic and raccoons eating the eggs, snappers have it rough enough without me eating them.


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## swbuckmaster

I've rescued probably 20 turtles in my travels. I've found snappers and painted turtles stuck in rocks. Soft shells stuck in pockets of water in dried up river beds and snappers and box turtles along or in roads. Never thought you could eat them. 
Ha ha the snappers were probably looking for a place to lay their eggs and I put them back in the lake.


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## RandomElk16

This weber river turtle debacle has goob up in arms haha


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## wyogoob

RandomElk16 said:


> This weber river turtle debacle has goob up in arms haha


I ain't been this jacked up since the hogs ate my cousin Jackie.

.


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## 30-06-hunter

This thread has me laughing, growing up back east we saw snappers all the time!


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## wyogoob

Hey, turtle made a fair showing in last year's "Taste Like Chicken" survey.


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## LostLouisianian

Back in the early 80's my brother was fishing commercially in the bayous of LA by his home. Normally used hoop nets and caught catfish. Several times a year he would end up with a big alligator snapper in there. I have pictures somewhere of him with some of them. He usually caught about half a dozen per year that weighed at least 75#. I think his biggest was around 110#. The thing is he hated catching the big ones because they tore up the hoop nets and it was basically a wash. He would have to replace the net and the turtle sale barely covered the cost of a net. From what I understand now in LA if you are fishing commercially you have to throw them back however if you are not commercially fishing you can keep them.


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## BPturkeys

You boys talk of things most foreign to us Utonians. I find this thread interesting. The only turtle populations I know of are located in the swamp area around Ogden Bay. They are box turtles with some growing up to 18" but most average around 6-8 inches across. You say they aren't good to eat, I'll go ahead and believe you on that one. 
But still Goob...please, the bucket, tell us more about this infamous bucket!


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## wyogoob

Bump


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## ns450f

What kind of turtles are living in Washington county waters?
I have seen them in numerous waters down here including the Virgin river....


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## Animediniol

wyogoob said:


> I come from turtle country, along the Mississippi River. We had Snapping Turtles and Softshell Turtles, Sliders and Cooters, Map Turtles and Painted Turtles, Stinkpots and Musk Turtles, and as anyone who ever pulled a harrow over sandy Midwest ground knows, Box Turtles (I love Box Turtles, but they are not table fare; maybe some stories later though).
> 
> I used to run traps and trot lines especially for turtles. Most of the meat I sold to the local “clubs”, i.e. Elks, Eagles, the Moose Lodge, American Legion….some bars too. Smelt was the preferred bait, taken in April from Lake Michigan by dip netting, and then frozen whole in 25 lb bags. Nothing is slimier or oilier than smelt and nothing comes close to catching turtles like smelt does.
> 
> They say turtle has 7 different colors of meat (I always counted 6, and loved to argue the fact, a beer in one hand and a bloody hatchet in the other, all the while whacking on a 20lb Spiny Softshell nailed to a tree, cigarette ashes running down my chest). The tenderloins under the backbone are clear and cook up as white as the driven snow. Then each muscle group gets darker as you go towards the dark meat of the ankles and feet.
> 
> I would get 12 to 15 turtles, worth keeping, on a normal night. Usually half were Snappers and half were Softshells. 15 turtles are all anyone wants to clean at one time. Here’s why:
> 
> 
> How to Butcher a Turtle:
> • Store turtles in damp potato sacks in a shady spot away from children. Tie each sack to a combine or corn picker.
> • Wearing gloves remove (angry) turtle from sack and aggravate it with a broomstick until he bites down on it.
> • Stretch the turtle’s neck out and chop his head off with a hatchet or corn knife.
> • Take the hatchet and beat the severed head off the stick into a bucket. Put a lid on the bucket and keep it away from children………and people who drank a lot of beer.
> • Put the (still angry) turtle back in the ‘toe sack'.
> 
> 24 hours later:
> • Do not attempt to put your hand in bucket of severed heads.
> • Wearing gloves, take the (hopefully calm) headless turtle out of the sack.
> • With a pair of catfish skinning pliers try to pull the turtle’s front leg out. If you can’t straighten the legs out without getting clawed to pieces, just go to bed and try it in the morning.
> • Still wearing gloves, stretch the legs out and cut off all the claws.
> • With three 20-penny nails nail the turtle to a tree, tail down and the plastron (bottom shell) facing you. Nail around the neck first, then around each thigh.
> • Cut around the plastron with a sharp knife.
> • Cut the belly and rib meat from the plastron and discard the shell….ah give it to the kids, keep ‘em busy and out of the bucket.
> • Still wearing gloves, cut around the skin from the carapace (top shell), starting at the neck.
> • With skinning pliers and a sharp knife skin the turtle from top to bottom.
> • Cut the tail off just behind the bung hole.
> • With a sharp knife separate the meat from the shell.
> • With a box knife cut the cartilage that holds the backbone to the carapace. Keep the kids out of the bucket.
> • Remove the entrails and eggs and discard in the bucket. (If the baby turtles in the eggs are alive, and for some reason you have to take them out of the shells, do not put your finger close to their mouths).
> • Cut the meat up by muscle groups (or color).
> • Remove as much fat as possible.
> 
> Parboil Before Freezing:
> • In a large pot of water add salt, peppercorns, onions and carrots, Bring to a boil.
> • Simmer until the fat melts off and meat is starting to fall off the bones on the feet.
> • Drain and rinse in hot water.
> 
> Note:
> • If you see the neighbor’s dog running around yelping with a Snapping Turtle head embedded on his bloody nose, you didn’t bury the stuff deep enough.


I love the taste of turtle soup but I feel conscience because we are almost ignoring the fact that turtles are going to be extinct.


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## caddis8

Goob, do you have to soak em alive in clean water a while or can you just get after them? They're grumpy buggers for sure.


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## wyogoob

caddis8 said:


> Goob, do you have to soak em alive in clean water a while or can you just get after them? They're grumpy buggers for sure.


No, you don't have to soak them. I had a '72 Ford station wagon that had a big spare tire compartment in the back. I'd put wet gunny sacks in it and throw the turtles in that. Later I used a pickup with a half-55 gallon barrel. Snappers don't need water, soft-shell turtles do. Growing up we used a horse trough as a "holding" tank for catfish and turtles. I usually cut their heads off in the morning or the next day after work.


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## provider

ns450f said:


> What kind of turtles are living in Washington county waters?
> I have seen them in numerous waters down here including the Virgin river....


I think they are red ear.


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## alaska

Animediniol said:


> I love the taste of turtle soup but I feel conscience because we are almost ignoring the fact that turtles are going to be extinct.


Don't worry, they won't be.


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## wyogoob

This is a public service announcement:

I posted some (wild snapping) turtle recipes on Facebook. This guy responded that handling, butchering and/or eating wild snapping turtles was unsafe. He said his brother contracted salmonella and died from butchering and eating a snapping turtle.

I've googled the issue for an hour or so and can only find proof of humans getting disease from pet turtles....Found some bits about wild turtle feces dangers.

So, that being said wear gloves when butchering turtles, avoid turtle poop and cook the meat to at least 160°.

Good grief


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