How to Cook Snapping Turtle

Where I grew up in south Louisiana, we saw plenty of snapping turtles, but most of us never thought to eat one. Maybe it's because we were blessed with having so many crawfish around, which were much easier--and less dangerous!--to catch and cook.

Nevertheless, occasionally one of my readers has asked me how to cook a snapping turtle. So, if you happen to find one of these rather nasty looking critters in your fishing net, or have one packed away inside your freezer, here's a great way to prepare it.

Cook Steak

By the way, snapping turtle is actually quite delicious!

Assuming you have a live snapper on your hands, the first step, of course, is to kill it. Don some gloves, grab a sharp knife, and cut off the turtle's head as quickly and cleanly as possible. There will be blood, of course, which you should allow to run down the drain of your sink until the flow has slowed considerably.

Now drop the turtle's body, shell and all (except the head, of course) into a big pot of boiling water. Boil for 8 minutes. This is mainly to make cleaning it easier.

Remove the turtle from the pot and allow it to cool sufficiently to be able to handle it. Take your sharp knife and cut away the plastron, or lower shell. Remove the intestines and other organs. Now cut the good stuff, the meat, away from the top shell; be sure to include the legs and tail, which are the best-tasting parts (the skin should come off of these easily after boiling).

You can cook turtle meat, whether from a snapper or some other species, in many different ways. My favorite is this snapping turtle stew:

1. Cut the turtle meat into cubes.

2. Begin browning the meat in a hot frying pan with cooking oil. Add a chopped onion, one or two chopped cloves of garlic and continue cooking until the meat is browned all over.

3. Drain the oil from the frying pan. Remove the meat, onion and garlic and place them in a saucepan (one with a lid). Add 2 cans of tomatoes and 4 sliced or chopped potatoes, some salt and pepper, and enough water to cover everything.

4. Cover the saucepan and cook at a strong simmer for 40 to 50 minutes.

5. Enjoy!

How to Cook Snapping Turtle

Sarah Sandori is the food and entertaining columnist for the Solid Gold Info Writers Consortium. Have you ever wanted to be able to exactly duplicate a favorite dish from a favorite restaurant? Check out Sarah's article where she reveals her secret source for the most mouth-watering restaurant recipes in America: http://www.solid-gold.info/most-wanted-recipes.html

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5 Easy Steak House Secrets - Eat Great Steak At Home

Nothing beats a great steak. Celebrity chef steak houses are the hottest new restaurant trend; but you don't need to spend a fortune at a steakhouse. Follow these 5 easy tips, and make great steak at home every time.

1. Leave your steak in the fridge for a couple of days before you cook it. Steak houses brag about dry aging their beef, why can't you do the same? Unwrap the plastic from the meat and leave it exposed to the air for a couple of days. Naturally occurring enzymes will tenderize the meat and impart a great beefy flavor.

2. Want a medium rare steak. Cook it from frozen. Now you don't want to plunk a solid ice cube of steak on the grill, but if you leave your steak partially frozen, you'll end up with a deep brown caramelized crust and a juicy medium rare inside. Steak houses have grills that get a lot hotter than yours does. So keeping the meat a little frozen gives the steak time to develop that deep flavorful brown, before overcooking the inside.

3. Salt your steak. Use a little more salt than you think you need. It won't taste too salty, it will taste wonderful. Salting prior to cooking extracts some of the amino acids in the meat and these, when heated, will brown up and help you get that great steak house crust.

4. Dry the surface of the meat before cooking. Again, you want to get that deep brown crust, and the drier the meat surface the better the crust.

5. A dry steak is disappointing, so let the meat rest for a few minutes before serving. You don't want to cut into your beautiful steak and have all the juices run out. The juices, during cooking, rush out toward the hotter exterior. Letting the meat rest for 5-10 minutes before cutting into it lets the juices get reabsorbed throughout the steak.

That's all there is to it. Follow these 5 easy steps before your next steak dinner and taste the difference.

John Lee is the chef owner of The Salsa Kitchen and The Jerk Island Caribbean restaurant in Chiang Mai Thailand. For the best gluten free lemon loaf recipe ever, visit: http://hubpages.com/hub/Gluten_free_banana_lemon_loaf_The_best_ever_gluten_free_recipe

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Barbecue Pork Steaks - Secret Ways to Cook Them Revealed For the Very First Time

Have you ever eaten a barbecue pork steak? If not, you are really missing out on a delicious barbecue experience. Almost everyone who is from the region of the United States that surrounds the City of St. Louis has, and takes for granted that everyone else in the country has too. That is not the case. It is very hard to find them outside of the St. Louis influenced regional area.

For his reason, directions for properly preparing a pork steak will be presented:

Cook Steak

Locate the right cut of meat. This may sound obviously easy. It is not. In areas outside of the St. Louis zone, it is very difficult to find the cut that we know as the pork steak. You just can't pop down to the Schnucks and get 3 pounds on sale. Grocery stores don't even have them. Butchers look at you like you have three heads if you ask for one. This is how you get an authentic pork steak to cook. Go to your friendly butcher and ask him if he would be so kind as to custom cut some meat for you. He should be happy and willing to do this. If not, find another butcher. Tell him you need a pork shoulder, (the Boston butt portion) sliced into steaks, approximately 3/4 inch thick. Get about six of them. This is a pork steak. A pork chop is not a very good substitute, because it is a pork chop. Thank your butcher for helping you, and pay him. He should be more than willing to accept your money, and will be glad to see you again if you pay him. Get out your Weber style kettle grill, set it up for direct cooking. This means build a charcoal fire on the bottom grate, and spread out the coals across the bottom when properly lit. You want your fire to be medium hot when you grill your pork steaks. Season the steaks with salt and pepper. You may want to rub them with a barbecue rub. Some do, some don't. Put the steaks on the grill, cover with the lid, vents open. You'll hear all sorts of sizzling sounds and smoke will pour out of the open top vents. This is good. Turn the steaks over after about 5 minutes, and do the same with the lid, smoke pouring out. Cook this side for about 5 minutes. Remove the steaks to one of those cheap aluminum disposable baking pans that you can purchase at your grocery store, and cover them with the barbecue sauce that you like best. In St. Louis, the sauce of choice for old school backyard grill-masters would be Maulls, a local sauce with a catchy TV advertising jingle. Any sauce will do though, as long as it is your favorite. Some people will add beer to the mix at this point, both by drinking some and adding some to the sauce pan. Place your steaks back on the grill, in the pan and let them baste for awhile, until you are ready to eat. Serve them with potato salad (the kind made with mayo and egg is the best for authenticity) on the side. Accept the praise offered by your family and friends humbly as they devour your pork steaks.

There you have it, the secret method used by native St. Louis barbecue chef's to prepare the dish, barbecue Saint Louis Style Pork Steaks.

Barbecue Pork Steaks - Secret Ways to Cook Them Revealed For the Very First Time

Free report shows you a simple, easy, proven way to smoke perfect barbecue every time - guaranteed. Get it here: http://www.bbq-jim.com. Jim Hess is an expert article writer and reviews e-books about barbecue cooking and alternative energy systems. See Jim's webpage here: http://www.bbq-jim.com.

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