How to Boil Green Turtle

Ingredients

• For every four pounds of turtle flesh and shell
• a gallon of cold water
• a tablespoonful of salt
• one carrot
• one turnip
• one onion peeled and stuck with a dozen cloves
• a bouquet of parsley, sweet herbs, mace, and peppercorns

Method

1. 1

   Put turtle flesh and shell over the fire with veal bones, salt, carrot, turnip, onion, and bouquet.

2. 2

   Remove scum, cover kettle, and boil gently.

3. 3

   As turtle becomes tender, cool and wrap in a wet cloth.

4. 4

   Boil bones and shells for 5-6 hours, strain stock, and save for soup and sauces.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Miss Corson's practical American cookery and household management (1885) by Juliet Corson, page 112. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

HOW TO BOIL GREEN TURTLE. For every four pounds of turtle flesh and shell allow a gallon of cold water ; put them over the fire together with an even weight of veal bones, or of calf s head or feet, a table- spoonful of salt, and one carrot, one turnip, one onion peeled and stuck with a dozen cloves, and a bouquet of parsley, sweet herbs, mace, and peppercorns ; remove all scum as it rises, keep the kettle closely covered, and boil its contents gently ; as fast as any portion of the turtle becomes tender, take it up, cool it, wrap it in a wet cloth, and put it in a cool place until it is wanted for making any of the dishes for which recipes are given. Continue to boil the bones and shells for five or six hours ; and then strain the stock, and put it by for the soup and sauces. The dark under shell is to be boiled until tender, and then saved for the soup, to which it is added after being cut in half-inch dice. GREEN TURTLE SOUP-STOCK. Prepare the turtle as directed in the two preceding re- cipes. To make the stock for the soup, put the pieces of shell over the fire with sufficient boiling water to cover them, and boil them for two or three hours, or until the outer edges of the shell are soft ; if the water boils away, add more, SOUPS. 195 always keeping the shells covered. Then cut the soft parts of the shells into pieces about half an inch square, lay them in an earthen bowl, cover them with a wet napkin, and keep tliem in a cool place until wanted. Then put the hard parts of the shell again into the water in which it was boiled ; put in also one-eighth of the first weight of the turde in soup- beef bones, and one-sixteenth of the weight in the bones of veal, or of calf s feet and head cleaned as directed in the recipe for skinning calf s head for mock turde soup. On top of these ingredients lay the neck and fins of the turtle, and the cushions or rounded muscles at the top of the turtle fins, unless part of the latter is to be reserved raw for broil- ing as turtle steaks-; add sufficient water to cover all, and two heaping tablespoonfuls of salt

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.