Thread: Turtles

The lil'ns must've caught 15 big sliders in the back yard over the weekend....
No snappers though. Or I'd be eating.

Adam, those sliders are very good eating but it take a bunch to make a meal. They are not as meaty as a snapper but the meat is tender and delish.
"gene"

How do you cook those Gene, like alligator? With gator, I normally fry or grill with a marinade of some sort. If tough, I tenderize. Did the same with those big rattle snakes in West Texas.

Randy we like them in a sauce piquant. Linda cooks her tomato gravy nice and thick spiced up with Rotel. Once the sauce is going real good she'll drop in the turtle and let it simmer until tender. With the sliders it doesn't take long, snapper is tougher and take a while.
"gene"

Okay, that will work. Rotel has green chilies, which I love. Thanks a lot - going to do that for sure

I caught a turtle on Darbonne yesterday on a cricket. Caught them cat fishing before but never while bream fishing.

Originally Posted by PawPaw "gene"

Randy we like them in a sauce piquant. Linda cooks her tomato gravy nice and thick spiced up with Rotel. Once the sauce is going real good she'll drop in the turtle and let it simmer until tender. With the sliders it doesn't take long, snapper is tougher and take a while.
"gene"

brown them snappers hard first, then remove them and make your tomato gravy (just like paw paw said) add a little light roux if desired, and return turtle meat, this will help get them tender faster and add some great flavor and color to the sauce!

On those older snappers, we put them in a pressure cooker for about 15 minutes to help tenderize them. It makes the whole process faster.

Speaking of snappers, a few weeks back my son was driving south on I-49 north of Alexandria when he spotted a large alligator snapper walking on the Interstate. He pull over waited for the next car to pass. Well the car happened to be a state trooper who stopped to check out the situation. Since my son was driving his mini float he was told that he was not allow to have in his truck because it was a commercial vehicle. He help my son get it off of the highway and back into the ditches where there was plenty water. The turtle weight was around 75 pounds.

"gene"