All Britains Fish

[Robson Valley]

They are trapped, caught but then conserved alive in a sanctuary.
I've never eaten sliders but I know they are not supposed top be set loose alive.

The snappers are nasty, nasty, nasty to the core. Needs a lot of garlic.
Tease a big one with a broom handle.

 

[Janne]

Ultimate bushcrafting:
Fashion a paper weight from the ant nest cleaned body.

The turtles here are to big for that. But they look nice, polished, on a wall!

 

[santaman2000]

They are trapped, caught but then conserved alive in a sanctuary.
I've never eaten sliders but I know they are not supposed top be set loose alive.

The snappers are nasty, nasty, nasty to the core. Needs a lot of garlic.
Tease a big one with a broom handle.

Yeah, I gathered they were being conserved alive. I just don’t understand why. Turtle soup is delicious and those are the species Cajuns usually use to make it.

 

[Robson Valley]

If they're dinner-plate size. Since they are a foreign, introduced species consuming limited resources for native animals,
catch 'em and eat'em. Everyone would be right pi$$y in a hurry if they were gators.
Just all that much less food to haul along when you're out on the track.

 

[santaman2000]

Dinner plate size is average for a river turtle (the red eared terrapin) It’s small for the snapper. Also the article only mentioned the lifespan of the terrapin being around 30 years; they failed to mention that alligator snappers live up to 100 or even more.

 

[Mesquite]

Yeah, I gathered they were being conserved alive. I just don’t understand why. Turtle soup is delicious and those are the species Cajuns usually use to make it.

Maybe it could be because there isn't the tradition to throw turtles in a cookpot over here.

 

[Janne]

No, not an European custom since a very long time.
Eating turtles finished when the last plate of Turtle Soup was eaten I imagine..
Must have been pre WW2?
Eating Whale meat stopped in UK in the early 1970?

Pork and Beef we like in Europe.

The odd chicken goes down well too.

Fresh water fish is not eaten much in England?

 

[santaman2000]

Maybe it could be because there isn't the tradition to throw turtles in a cookpot over here.

Perhaps. But it seems preferable to the alternatives. Your article said nobody wants to take them on to care for in captivity so that means either turn them loose into the wild again (which seems I’ll advised—-if even legal) or simply kill them and toss aside.

Just a few years ago there was no tradition for eating crawfish there either.

 

[Janne]

Eating crawfish is an ancient custom across Europe.

I suspect eating fresh water critters was a bit forgotten in UK when efficient catch and transport developed during the industrialisation in late 1700’.

 

[Robson Valley]

Alligator and turtle taste good, kind of porky to me.
Bit of a lemon marinade over dice meat. Thin crumb coating, pan-fry in butter.
Must serve apple sauce next time. Gator was $20/lb import here.

Maybe harvest and prepare and call them "rock fish?"
"Flake" in Australia is actually Gummy Shark = the best with chips.

 

[Janne]

My palate recognises bland meat type young pork with a hint of fish in Turtle.
That is a Green Sea Turtle.

I even prefer Turkey before Turtle.

 

[santaman2000]

Maybe it could be because there isn't the tradition to throw turtles in a cookpot over here.

I did find these two articles indicating there may be a British tradition for turtle soup:
http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/turtlesoup.htm

And

https://britishfoodhistory.com/2016/08/09/mock-turtle-soup/

 

[santaman2000]

Alligator and turtle taste good, kind of porky to me.......

My palate recognises bland meat type young pork with a hint of fish in Turtle.
That is a Green Sea Turtle.

Depends more on what cut of turtle than what species.

 

[Janne]

Not sure the Caribbean Haute Cuisine does many specific cuts of a Turtle.

Many fresh water fish are delicious. Sprcially if you know where to find the bones.

 

[Robson Valley]

The best freshwater fish across Canada would be the Wall-eye (Pickerel), Perch, Burbot and Northern Pike.
You learn to fillet those with no bones.
Probably near the same in Britain, provided you can get fishing access.
Here, the lakes and rivers are crown land = public. Buy a license, get geared up and go fishing.

 

[Janne]

Had to look up what a Burbot is.
Yes, fairly common in Sweden. We make a soup of him.

 

[Robson Valley]

Burbot? Janne, you are a nut-case. Canada's Burbot is the inland equivalent of Pacific Halibut.
The baby blue eyes and slippery skin turn off all the ignorant & unwashed.
Pan-seared in a litle lemon butter. FAST and it has the texture of crab. SLOW is like roast chicken = very fine.

 

[daveO]

I bet there's plenty of people in the UK who would eat a turtle if they could get hold of them. We're very diverse these days. Same with fresh water fish. It's quite a problem now stopping some cultures from emptying our fishing lakes. The culture of eating freshwater fish here probably died off more due to our strict ownership laws and rod licencing. Not to mention a lot of our waters turned pretty manky during the industrial revolution and have only been cleaned up relatively recently.

 

[Mesquite]

I did find these two articles indicating there may be a British tradition for turtle soup:
http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/turtlesoup.htm

And

https://britishfoodhistory.com/2016/08/09/mock-turtle-soup/

You are talking about something that dates back to the 1700's that was imported to this country.

It has not been traditional to eat turtles here because they aren't a native species and probably haven't been for thousands of years.

I can't understand why you have to be so critical about the fact that a turtle is being kept alive and isn't being thrown in the nearest cookpot because that's what you would do. For someone to to be able to cook it they would have to humanely dispatch it and butcher it accordingly. Very few people would have the facilities to do that or want to.

If they didn't do it humanely then it's highly likely that they would get prosecuted by the RSPCA for cruelty to the animal but no doubt you won't understand that either.

Just accept that the animal was dealt with appropriately for THIS country and move on

 

[Janne]

Burbot? Janne, you are a nut-case. Canada's Burbot is the inland equivalent of Pacific Halibut.
The baby blue eyes and slippery skin turn off all the ignorant & unwashed.
Pan-seared in a litle lemon butter. FAST and it has the texture of crab. SLOW is like roast chicken = very fine.

I know the fish, but did not know the english word for it.
I would not say it is much Halibut like, it being in the same family as Cod, I think it is more like a Cusk. Looks like one, even feels like one!

Have not fished for Butbot for 25+ years. I used to do night fishing specifically for him and Eel.
Now I target Cusk in my summer fishing. Cook the same way. Excellent in soup!
Turtle soup was imported to UK and Europe. Not European food. Exotic stuff.
There eas a short lived Turtle Soup cannery here in Cayman. Shortlivrd because UK, the main target country, did not eat much of it anymore.
( or maybe because it was of bad quality?)

I do not think the large sea turtles bred much on any European shore, historically or now?