I caught a turtle today and I have him in a 50 gal drum with water an inch above his shell and I was plannning on eating him when I don’t have to change the water anymore cause it’s clean, what’s some good recipes? I was thinking creole frying him but I’m not sure, my dad says there’s dark and light meat on a turtle, that true?

I fry the meat up in a cast iron skillet with butter,, some garlic,,salt,, pepper and mushrooms and onions.Turtle stew is also good.Tons of recipes

Alright thanks

You might have to blow these up but here are a couple I found in an old cook book.

Head can still bite even after you chop it off so dont mess with that.

I mix wild rice ,brown rice,onion, garlic, cayenne pepper, wostersire, salt,pepper and a chucked up turtle in a large roasting pan with a tight fitting lid. Cover with chicken stock and bake on about 250 until the rice is done.

The neck meat is white and the other meat is ur regular red

My mom would season the meat, coat with flour and pan fry for 5 minutes a side. Put the meat is an oven roaster and bake till done. Meat is delicious!

I dont have the recipe but Andrew Eastwood (on here) smokes it. Best turtle I ever ate.

The legs and tail are dark meat. The neck and the spine attached to the shell are white. You can use a wide chisel to remove the part attached to the shell. IMO, that's the best meat. Although all turtle meat is good.
I've eaten turtle soup, baked turtle with gravy, and deep fried turtle. All are delicious eating.

Anyone have a good soft shell recipe, or do you cook them same as snappers?

It's said there's 7 kinds of meat on a turtle. I never really could tell a difference.

I always pressure cook it to tenderize it, then fry it crispy brown in a frying pan. I love it like that and never tried any other way. Don't kill many these days, but when I was younger I grabbed every snapper i could lay my hands on. That was before the state put a season and size limit on them though. (July 15th through Sept 15th....13 inch minimum carapace length).

Don't go out and catch a bunch of diamondback terrapins to eat. The Man will throw you under the jail

I’ve only messed with snapper, and always followed a Justin Wilson cookbook recipe, which I think was the recipe used by the Hotel Montelone, in New Orleans.

I mostly make a chowder, with them, I make it for our trapping meeting, it the best attendance at a meeting all year

I boil the turtle meat in chicken bullion water for half hour to 45 minutes to soften the meat then I either fry it or as Danny mentioned I cook it on the smoker. For the smoker I season the meat with creole seasoning, cajun seasoning, and lemon herb, This all goes in a pan with a stick of butter sliced up and spread evenly over top. I put it on the smoker at 225 in an open pan for a few hours then cover until time to eat.
For what it is worth I never bother leaving the turtles in water to "clean" anymore unless I just have a better day to butcher. Leaving a turtle in clean water does nothing but make him hungry and his guts empty, I don't eat the guts anyway.

Can you offer advice on how to get them from a snapper with it's head shot off, to kitchen ready?

I cut the bottom plate off first , then removed the legs and tail, and neck, they will keep moving for a while so be ready, I don't remove the head I nail it to a pole and hang the turtle, if I'm going to fry it, I just clean up the parts, if I'm making soup, I debone it all,

Give em a whack on the nose like you do a coyote. They will stretch their head and neck out. Pruning shears right behind the head.

Somewhere in here there is a tutorial on how to clean a snapper but Im not smart enough to find it for you or I would.

Smack it on the nose tip with 2 x4, grab channel locks and cut head off. Put it in something so pets or kids can't get bit. Take a garden hose with sprayer nozzle and blow the turtle up like a balloon. Helps separate meat from skin. Nail neck to a piece of 3/4" plywood and start cutting. Take the feet off and follow the shell and then around the bottom plate.

I have been thinking chicken broth in an insta pot pressure cooker for about 20 minutes. The finish up like Andrew.

Yotetrapper, I would recommend a video called (Snapping Turtles from A-Z with Jerry Schilling) Jerry does a great job showing how to butcher the turtles and even explains frying the turtles better than I can. I give total credit to him for my fried turtle and he has cut my butchering time down to between 5 and 10 minutes per turtle. The first one of the season is usually closer to the 10 minute mark, but like skinning beaver or anything else I get faster as it goes. Basically you nose knock the turtle, cut head off so he don't bite ya (save the two little nuggets out of top the head, they is the best eating piece of the turtle), remove feet so he don't scratch ya, then cut around the top shell, bust back between hips and top shell, twist top shell off of neck end, nail the bottom shell to table so legs hang over table edge, with a little knife work to start each leg and neck piece pull them all out of the hide one at a time.

Thanks everyone

So you’re saying you don’t need to clean out a turtle? I’ve always heard you do but I’m open to other opinions