I saw a huge one laid out on the highway when I first moved here. It was trying to cross a 55MPH road to go from one farm pond to another. Might have made it in the wee hours of the morning, but not in the middle of the day. I've never seen a light tan turtle before.
I had an uncle who'd pay us $10 for a snapping turtle, which he made soup out of. We could dig them up along the riverbed. I've never tasted the stuff, though.
Canned Turtle Soup was a thing. GREEN TURTLE SOUP 1 can green turtle soup 1 can green pea soup Sherry 1 egg white Heat contents of two cans together, stirring until smooth. When ready to serve, add a wine-glassful of sherry. Place spoonful of stiffly beaten egg-white on each cup of soup, and put under the broiler until egg is light brown. Heat-proof bouillon cups must be used in this case, but soup is delicious without egg white, or with croutons in place of it. KATHARINE CORNELL "Turtle soup was among the most sought-after and popular dishes in all of American history. Accounts in the 18th and 19th centuries of massive parties known as “turtle frolics” suggest they were more popular than hog barbecues and oyster roasts. No early cookbook lacked a recipe for turtle, terrapin, or snapper stew—made from sea turtle, snapping turtle, box turtle, or diamondback terrapin". "According to Paul Freedman, a food historian at Yale, the great fashion for turtle soup peters out in the mid-20th century. “I have looked at menus from the Philadelphia Club, a fancy old men’s club, and in the 1950s they not only still served terrapin, but packaged it in some form so you could take it home,” he told me, noting that because of “degradation of habitat, it became harder to get.” One can still find it served, say, in New Orleans’ Commander’s Palace and at the Oyster House in Philadelphia". "Once cleaned, an average turtle will yield about three or four pounds of meat, so it’s easy to see why it was once the workingman’s meal. At any house with a well, there might be one or two turtles hanging out in the nearby puddles. So, another explanation for their disappearance from the common menu might well be indoor plumbing". "Turtle’s disappearance may be partly due to the fact that its persona, over the years, has shifted away from easily accessible food toward something anthropomorphic, more like a loveable cartoon character—see: Yertle, Franklin, Cecil, and Touché, not to mention Donatello and that whole gang". But there may be yet another explanation: There was a big shift in tastes somewhere after World War I, Freedman told me. It’s hard not to note the sheer variety of what was available before then, not just of turtle, but of all manner of meats. By World War II, American taste for meat had bottlenecked into chicken, pork, and beef, all three of which could be grown, fed, quartered, and slaughtered according to the efficiency demands of Henry Ford’s assembly-line theories.
Acting Like a Strudel- Gene Wilder's 'Mock Strudel' But my favorite story came from actor Gene Wilder: “When I was seven years old I had a passion for strudel that exceeded my interest in most other things in life. It wasn’t all strudel I loved – only my Bubby’s and her cousin’s (both ladies came over from Russia in 1911) … One particular day I went to visit my grandmother … to my surprise my grandmother was in the process of making a fresh batch. I pulled up a stool and watched her as she finished rolling the dough. … An hour later, I came bursting into my own mother’s kitchen, crying ‘Mama! Mama! I know how to make strudel.’ ‘What are you talking about?’ she said. ‘I can make strudel,’ I answered very confidently. ‘How do you do it?’ she asked. (READ MORE)
That is interesting, @Nancy Hart ! As I watched, I was thinking two things: 1. That is a huge amount of oil for each skinny hoecake, plus she said they put butter on them when they eat them. What a Greasebomb ! 2. If they were being cooked out in the field over a fire with a hoe, they would not have had the plate to turn the hoecakes with like she did, and not that much oil out there either (and it would have probably been lard , in any case). It is an interesting idea, and I will have to look into hoecakes more, since it definitely seems like a fairly simple food, and very few ingredients. Thanks for sharing this ! If you make some, let us know how they turn out , please.
Yes, I was thinking the same thing. That's why they are probably really good. Especially with lard. There are a lot of variations. This one definitely wouldn't fit on a hoe.
Townsends said hoecakes weren't ever really routinely made on a hoe, but they could be if nothing else were available. I think lard was used as they didn't have cooking spray and early they didn't even have oil.
Among my mother's cookbooks was one from the Great Depression Era, entitled, "365 Ways To Serve Ground Beef."
Depression Era Cookbooks Tour: 1930s Recipes "Wondering what cookbooks from the 1930s looked like? Want to see what people in America ate during the Great Depression? In this post I share four cookbooks from the 1930s that are part of my collection. If you’re interested in Depression era cookbooks and recipes, keep reading."
We were just discussing cornbread/hoe cakes/etc. on the supper thread a few days ago. I remember my mother making lacy cornbread on a cast iron griddle pan. She referred to "hoe cake" as something thicker, much like a "hush puppy" but not deep fried.
@Nancy Hart - saw a previous post of your tomato gravy- i use to make that when married to first husband. We could afford to eat that and often did. i may make me and hubby 2 some soon, with biscuits