Is It Legal to Eat Turtle in the Us Le 25 octobre 2022
NOTE: State and federal laws protect sea turtles and diamond turtles. They cannot be consumed legally. When talking about edible turtles, a distinction must be made between freshwater varieties and sea turtles. This is because the two have radically different life cycles and behaviors and are used differently for cooking. Turtles are edible and have been a food source for humans for a very long time. There are certain regulations and hunting seasons that may vary from state to state. You also can`t eat just any turtle as their population is declining and many are endangered species. There are many types of turtles, and we have different relationships with (and recipes for) each of them. During the Great Depression, gopher turtles became such an important source of meat for rural Southerners that they were given a new nickname, « Hoover Chicken, » which honored, so to speak, our then-president, Herbert Hoover. This species is now federally threatened in Louisiana, Mississippi and western Alabama and is protected everywhere. Diamond-backed turtles, the beautifully patterned turtles that inhabit the brackish waters along the East Coast, were caught so heavily for food that more than 100 years ago, the U.S.
government began to worry about its severely depleted populations. In some areas, turtles can still be abundant and are even considered parasites. The alligator Snapping Turtle is the largest freshwater turtle in North America. Once considered a single species, there are now two or three different species of alligator Snapping Turtles, depending on who you ask. They are quite impressive: large alligator snapper can reach well over 100 pounds. And old is true, these turtles can live more than 50 years, if not a century; They only become sexually mature and able to reproduce after their first decade of life. In the 1960s and 1970s, we almost wiped out alligator snapping turtles because many adults were harvested for soup. One former collector reported that in the 1970s, he and his colleagues removed several tons of these animals from a river in Georgia each day and only stopped when they didn`t catch enough to make it worthwhile. This article will cover how they taste, how people cook them, and what are the legalities that do it. Turtle meat is high in protein, also low in fat, cholesterol and calories.
Vitamins A, B1, B6, zinc and phosphorus can also be found in turtle meat. There are also ancient beliefs that turtles or turtle eggs serve as an aphrodisiac. Fossil evidence has shown that humans ate turtles more than 400,000 years ago. Even today, soup and turtle meat are served all over the world. Turtle soup was a popular dish in restaurants near New Orleans. If you decide to eat on our peeled little friends, first you need to know what turtles look like. There is actually evidence showing that humans ate turtles 400,000 years ago. Asian nations and several island states eat freshwater species such as soft-shelled turtles.
They fry, fry, cook and make soup with these turtles. There are still risks involved in cooking turtles, as they often carry deadly bacteria such as salmonella. People who have eaten turtle eggs have described the taste as similar to eggs from other animals. In addition, they have a strong smell that lasts for some time. Restaurants in New Orleans and other southern cities serve turtle soup. If it wasn`t allowed, it couldn`t be on the outdoor menu. I ate turtles. In fact, it tasted like chicken. The turtle is still commonly eaten today in places like New Orleans, where dishes like turtle soup are still served. In addition to their eggs, sea turtles are also eaten in themselves and also used to make turtle soup.
However, sea turtle soup is not like that of freshwater turtles due to the different characteristics of meat and gelatinous materials in the fins, which are the most commonly used parts. English sailors travelling to and from the Caribbean found turtles to be an ideal food as they could be kept alive aboard the ship until the need for food arose. It has been said that using them in this way could allow a ship to operate for an additional year by warding off the vitamin deficiency often associated with sailing life. You may want to wear gloves and wash your hands after handling a turtle. Now fill a bathtub with water and boil the turtle. Let it simmer for a while. Once you notice that the shell becomes soft, take a stiff brush and rub the scales. This removes the skin of the turtle and kills bacteria, if present. Since turtles can live without food for months, they have been a particularly good food source for sailors. That`s a question Saveur magazine recently tried to answer. Well, if you ask me or someone who knows a lot about turtles and turtle conservation, the answer is pretty simple: there aren`t enough turtles to eat. For example, a photo of a few cooks hovering over the carcass of a green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) leads to the Flavor article.
Today, green turtles, like all other types of sea turtles, are protected under the Endangered Species Act. If you eat one in the United States, you would be committing a crime. Once captured and slaughtered, freshwater turtles should be thoroughly cleaned with soap and an exfoliating brush and then rinsed. This will remove mud or gravel from the turtle, which can damage the dish. The lower shell is then removed and the entrails removed, thus preserving the liver and all eggs. The turtle must then be rinsed again, and the bones, claws and any black flesh are removed. The meat can then be added to the soup or cooked to taste. Do it in one fell swoop. Do this as abruptly as possible so that the turtle does not feel pain any longer. However, a favorite among turtle connoisseurs, the Snapping Turtle has a longer tail, so you can enjoy a suitable slice of turtle meat. Now take tongs and hold the thread.
Clip the wire through the turtle`s tail. Now hang it upside down on a tree to bleed it. Turtle soup in the United States hasn`t faded just because our palates have changed. Our taste for turtle soup has exploded to unsustainable levels, making turtles disappear first. They still haven`t returned. Some freshwater turtles, as well as sea turtles, have been included in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. After opening and dissecting the body parts, tenderize the turtle meat by cooking it. Only after that you choose your way of cooking. You can fry, fry or prepare a curry. Most chefs like to cook Snapping Turtle soup. Give the Snapping Turtle a piece of stick to bite. Be careful, otherwise it could bite your fingers.
Turtle populations have an interesting survival strategy. Most young turtles and eggs are eaten by predators such as raccoons, herons and large fish. This has not been a problem historically, as turtles that survive to adulthood usually live for many years. They produce so many eggs in their lifetime that there is a good chance that at least some will survive long enough to replace their aging parents. The strategy works pretty well as long as we don`t remove adult turtles from the population – especially females – before they`ve had their long-term breeding. That`s why even individual turtles are so important (and why I`m known to go to great lengths to help them). Any species could be found in soup or stew, but in this country, turtle soup is synonymous with alligator snapping turtle. Interestingly, you`ll never know about our long history with alligator Snapping Turtles if you read Flavor magazine, as it doesn`t even mention the species. It`s like writing an entire article about cheeseburgers and never mentioning beef. or cows. The turtle hunters in Saveur`s article were in Virginia, and their quarry was another species of Snapping Turtle, Chelydra serpentina.
This species is still relatively common in Virginia, but commercial collection is illegal. Commercial collection of even relatively common turtle species has recently been banned in much of the southeastern United States in response to growing demand from Asia. This alarming and growing demand had begun to put unbearable pressure on our turtle populations. But in some states, depending on the type, you can always take a pair for personal use. As mentioned above, freshwater turtles can be found in almost any shallow pond or stream in North America. Pond turtles should be hunted during the warmer months when warming up in the sun. They can be seen sitting on tree trunks or rocks, although they try to escape underwater. Soft-shelled turtles, in particular, can spend a lot of time underwater. Snappers, on the other hand, can be attracted with bait, usually at night.
During the colder months, snapper burrows underground. They can be easily found by dipping a stick or metal rod in the earth around a waterhole, then digging them up and taking them away without risk of biting (snapper rest in the cold). Sea turtles are migratory animals and, when they are adults, have few predators at sea. However, their reproductive patterns have recently made them very vulnerable to extinction. Sea turtles return to their birth beach to lay eggs, and they can easily be caught at this time. What`s worse, however, is that their eggs are very sensitive to human and animal consumption.