Knock, knock, knock!
The knock on my front door sounded urgent. Normally I’d answer it, but at that moment I was elbow deep in snow goose gore; I’d shot six the previous day and was in the middle of plucking, skinning, gutting and breaking them down. No position to greet polite society. “Holly, can you get that?”
Holly answered the door. It was the mailman. I couldn’t hear everything they were saying, but he appeared to have a large box in hand that he very much wanted to get rid of.
“Hey Hank,” Holly shouted into the kitchen. “Um… were you expecting anything… bloody?”
Not at the moment. The mailman knows me well enough to understand what I do and that I occasionally get care packages full of exotic protein. My first thought was my dad, who has sent me whole king salmon from the Pacific Northwest from time to time. But I’d told him to stop doing that, considering that I catch more than I can possibly eat every year now. “Open it up!”
Holly grabbed a utility knife and broke open the giant box: “Um… it’s a turtle.”
Oh! Norm and Joe!!
Norm and Joe are my friends from northeast Ohio. Trappers both, and hosts of the radio show Inside the Great Outdoors. It all came flooding back. When my book tour took me to Cleveland, I’d spent some time jawing with Norm and Joe (I stayed at Joe’s house) and well, we might have had a few beers and got talking about turtles.
Turtles are delicious, but are notoriously hard to clean, so I was thankful that Norm had cleaned this one for me. Usually cleaning a snapping turtle involves axes and wire cutters and boiling water and generally a lot of effort. This turtle was a bruiser, too: I weighed the meat at just over 3 pounds — enough for two meals!
I love turtle soup for two reasons: First, it’s just damn tasty. There are several classic ways to make it, and we’ll get to that in a moment, but turtle meat tastes like a cool combination of chicken thigh, clam and pork.
I know, weird, right? The reason is because turtle meat is all over the map, with at least four different textures and colors coming from the same turtle, depending on what part you’re talking about. The second reason I love turtle soup is because it is an American classic.
When the great captains of industry had banquets back in the late 1800s, terrapin soup would always be on the menu next to roast canvasback with fried hominy. Unfortunately, market hunters did such damage to the terrapin population that recreational hunting seasons on them only reopened recently. I’ve never eaten terrapin, which is a smallish turtle that’s reported to be very, very tasty.
But I have eaten snapping turtle. And that’s what Norm had mailed me.
Snapper soup, as it’s called in a lot of places, is just as classic as terrapin soup, but it’s more rustic. It’s still popular among a certain set in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland and its environs.
If you travel farther south, however, you will find my favorite version: Creole turtle soup. Well, to be honest, I like all turtle soups (the Chinese do some cool things with turtle, too) but this one is the most accessible to turtle newbies here in North America.
Creole turtle soup is a standard on New Orleans menus, and everyone has a different version.
One thing to look for is for diced or pulled meat, not ground: You can hide your lack of turtle in the grinder. Finishing the soup with sherry is de rigeur, and the result is a silky, spicy soup kinda-sorta like a gumbo, but with more tomato. It also typically has some chopped hard-boiled eggs in it, which is a nod to the old days, when they’d include any eggs they found inside the turtle in the soup.
I can hear you thinking: “Well Hank, this is all well and good and I am sure this soup is awesome, but where in hell can I find turtle?”
Guilty. Turtle meat is very tough to come by, but I’ve seen it in lots of Asian markets (you can even get live ones there) as well as in some farmers markets in places like Missouri, Ohio and Maryland. A half-decent substitute would be to use a combination of clams, chicken and pork. Not the same, but it’ll get ya close.
Creole Turtle Soup
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 pounds turtle meat on the bone, or 1 1/2 pounds boneless
- 4 bay leaves
- Salt
- 1 cup flour
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 celery stalks, minced
- 1 green bell pepper, minced
- 1 1/2 cups minced onion
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 18- ounce can crushed tomatoes
- 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon sweet paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne, or to taste
- 1/2 cup dry sherry
- 1/3 cup chopped parsley
- 2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
- Grated zest of a lemon
- Black pepper
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Instructions
- Start by making the turtle stock. Put the turtle meat into a large pot and cover with 8 cups of water. Add the bay leaves and about a tablespoon of salt. Bring to a boil and skim the scum that floats to the top. Drop the heat to a bare simmer and cook until the turtle meat wants to fall off the bone, about 2 to 3 hours.
- Remove the meat from the pot and pull it off the bones. Chop as coarse or as fine as you want. Strain the turtle broth and put it into a pot set over low heat to keep warm.
- In a Dutch oven or other soup pot, melt the butter over medium-high heat and stir in the flour. Cook this, stirring almost constantly, to make a roux the color of peanut butter, which will take about 10 to 15 minutes.
- Add the green pepper, celery and onion and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another minute. Add the chopped turtle meat and stir to combine.
- Stir in a cup of the turtle stock at a time until you the soup is the consistency of gravy. Add the tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, cayenne and paprika. Add more turtle broth until the soup thins a bit. It should be thicker than water, thinner than gravy -- like chicken and dumplings if you are familiar with that. Simmer gently for 15 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft.
- Finish the soup with the sherry, parsley, lemon zest and hard-boiled eggs. Add them all, stir to combine and simmer for a minute or two. Add salt, black pepper and lemon juice to taste. Serve alone or with rice.
Hey Hank, how can I adapt this recipe for a slow cooker? Thanks
Danielle: I don’t really know. I don’t cook with one. Sorry.
Made this soup exactly to the receipt it was out of this world. The different layers of flavor are simply exceptional. I will never make turtle soup any other way. I questioned the the lemon but in my opinion it absolutely finishes the dish. But if you don’t like lemon best to leave it out. I’m going to share with the neighbors and I hope it doesn’t make a long term problem for me.
Just try it!
Dave – Erie Pa
is 18 oz correct for the crushed tomatoes or should that be 28? I’ve only seen 15, 28, 32, etc but never an 18 oz can
Chris: It’s correct, so go for 15 ounces.
Made it today. It’s ok not my favorite. The only suggestion I have is cube the turtle meat and don’t stir so much. Maybe add the meat last. My fiance shredded the meat and it doesn’t look to tasty. It was something new but I think we’ll stick to the basics unless it’s the end of the world…. then I know how to cook them to survive.
Personally, I like a red tomato type of broth. Turtles are plentiful up here in DE, but there are restrictions now……
We are currently purging a (give or take) 18lb snapper from our pond that is overrun. He’s not even the largest! I plan on using this recipe first and then maybe some deep fried. Was yours purged or straight water to table? I’ve heard of both but most people say purge it for a week or so. Also, I’m a Maryland native, currently in Western NC so I love that the prologue speaks of my home yet I’m in the south making it for the first time ?Thanks for the recipe, looking forward to enjoying it!
I had never made turtle soup before I found this recipe. This is outstanding! Easy to make and has the true flavors of the South. I did add a few ingredients and left a few others out using what I had on hand. I will definitely make it again.
Outstanding recipe. Made some minor substitutions and process changes to fit what we had on hand and our rustic cooking envirnment. Definitely this is food fit for dignitaries of the highest order.
We used this recipe with a fresh caught soft shell turtle, yellow catfish and gulf shrimp. It came out amazing! Thank you for putting this recipe out there!
Got my meat from Joe Pattis seafood in Pensacola ( where I live) it’s $17.50 a lb. for snapping turtle anyway great recipe, it’s a little tomatoey but great the same.
I saw two large snappers laying eggs this past month but left them alone. You made me curious. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkYfAEFR03Q
I made this soup with meat from a giant snapping turtle that we caught last summer out of a MN lake. I wasn’t up to the task of cooking it then, so we stuck it in the freezer until today. I was surprised by how delicious it was! I followed the recipe exactly.
Excellent recipe!
We get a turtle or two a year and I made this for labor day weekend. Very good. I skipped the eggs personally and slightly less cayenne but that was.cause half our croud was kids. I added.a touch to my 2nd bowl to make up for that. Awesome. Gonna make turtle like this from now on!
Made the turtle stew. The best! Ben asked me to make it for my husband’s card club.
Made this soup for the first time last year. Was asked to make it again over Christmas and had people fighting over the last bowl! Amazing recipe. Got turtle cooking in pot right now and my kids are excited to get turtle soup tonight! Thanks for the recipe.
I love turtle soup!!! My husband helped clean 2 turtles, so lucky me got some turtle for the freezer. I live in Southeast Louisiana. I started looking for turtle soup recipes, found this one. It is great!! As close to any turtle soup I have had in Louisiana restaurants. My skeptical husband enjoyed it. Thanks!!!!!
I made this turtle soup last night and it was absolutely delicious. can’t say enough about how good it was!a double the amount of tomato sauce almost 28 ounces. I added some butternut squash at the end went easy on the Sherry.just a tiny little bit of lemon zest as it was very powerful. Tweak it to your own can’t go wrong with this recipe!
How do you go about removing the turtle from the shell?
Chase: Very carefully. 😉 In all seriousness, that’s a whole post in itself. Lots of videos on YouTube…
I live 30 min south of new orleans in a small town called thibodaux. and i must say this recipe is soooo good. taste just like home!!
You all talking bout turttle soup….come to micronesia we cook many different kind…..but in my place part of palau we like it raw….that’s the best most of us like…n the prob bout it is will make your hole body warm….
It’s fairly common to sub in veal for turtle in soups, and while I doubt your average Joe living in cajun/creole country had regular access to veal, I’ve done it and it works. I feel like the alligator and frog leg subs would be much closer, as there is a delicate fishy undertone to the turtle which doesn’t quite exist in terrestrial meats. But veal ain’t a bad alternative at all.
I use leftover pork loin, tastes just like a good turtle.
Linda: I love that you know that! (My readers are the best!)
This Recipe is very similar to one my Grandmother used, except we used chicken stock to boil the turtle meat in, sweet red wine instead of sherry, and green onions or shallots. I have used stock from the ribcages of the rabbits I raise to cook the turtle in. For a change, when the soup is done, drop to a very low simmer, add 1/2 can of evaporated milk and stir for about ten minutes, serve. Got a 16 lb softshell in a barrel that is going to meet his maker in the morning! Lots of Alligator Snappers, Mississippi Snappers and Softshells here. Caught this one ten minutes from my House within the city limits of Shreveport. Set my lines, ran ’em for two hours, had my turtle (and a nice Eel.) If you have to make “Faux” turtle soup, try 1/2 chicken white meat and 1/2 squirrel or nutria. Good Trapping!
It makes me happy!
Teddy: If it makes you happy, add sausage! 😉
Could you add any sausage to this? I love sausage with most roux-based stews….
Folks should make sure that any turtle they eat is from a safe (clean) source. Smaller (younger) turtles are probably safer to eat than larger (older) turtles. They are major bioaccumulators. A study a few years ago found that a single common snapping turtle collected in the Trinity River near Dallas had enough methyl mercury in it to kill a dog. That is reason enough for me never to eat turtle.
That looks like a very delicious soup! It’s time to catch some turtles.
AWESOME! Finally Hank! Thanks so much for this recipe, we got permits to pull a lot of snappers out of the backwaters of WI up here…so meat isn’t the problem. I’ll be trying this recipe out as soon as the thaw hits the lakes. Can’t wait.
I read a turtle soup recipe in my grandmothers cookbook when I was quite young. It began, catch a large snapping turtle, lay it on it’s back on a stump and hide behind a tree with an axe. That was at least 50 years ago, and there is no telling how old the cookbook was when I read it. I have been looking for a copy of that book for a very long time. As far as I know it was the only cookbook my grandmother ever owned. If you or any of your readers recognize that recipe I would very much like to know the name of the book it came from.
I’ll have to remember this the next time I catch a turtle. Caught my first one this past summer and panfried it. Turned out ok, but always good to have another recipe option.