When I was a kid, my dad's mother would make mock turtle soup about once a month. About once a year, we got the real deal, with snappers caught out of the Ohio River. Grandma's been dead more than 25 years, and my mom never learned her recipe, so it's only a faint memory from my childhood.

 

Every so often, though, my uncle (dad's brother) gets a hankering for turtle meat and will set out traps on the Ohio and catch a few, but nobody (sadly) ever got grandma's recipe. Still, we deep-fry it and eat it, and it is magnificent. It's been about 5 years since the last time I had it.

 

Apparently, according to the article I liked below, turtle has mostly disappeared from restaurant menus, except in places that are way too expensive for poor folks like me. Anybody still eat turtle, or make turtle stew, or even mock turtle soup?

 

Why have Americans stopped eating turtle?

 

* For Our Consideration

 

* The A.V. Club

I've never had it either. I'd love to try it

Seriously, what does Turtle Taste like?

I've never ate it but knew people who did.

My loyalty to TMNT won't allow me.

Seriously, what does Turtle Taste like?

 

I've never had it but I'm going with "tastes like chicken"

I make turtle soup whenever I'm unlucky enough to snag one and get it in to the shore. It's been 4 or 5 years now.

 

My dad and my grandpa on his side used to take us turtle "hunting" when I was little though.

 

Taste depends largely on how you cook it. Turtle and frog legs have always reminded me of one another. It's light tasting, but has kind of the texture of a chicken thigh.

 

I usually make my burgoo recipe when I'm looking to cook it, but I've also made turtle soup...I've got my grandma's recipe for that.

 

I've also got an old cookbook from the late 1940s called "Out Of Kentucky Kitchens" that includes a turtle soup recipe that I've been meaning to try. The forward for the cookbook was written by Bowling Green native Duncan Hines...and it also includes recipes for the Louisville Brown Hotel's original Hot Brown, the Brown's Cold Brown (which I didn't know was even a thing until I bought the cookbook), Miss Jennie Benedict's original recipe for Benedictine Sandwich Spread, and a pretty idiot proof beer cheese recipe.

Often. I love it

I have had turtle soup, and the soup I had had a very hearty bold taste. The turtle was a little chewy in small chunks, but not very tough. I liked it, but did not love it. I am sure preparation has a lot to do with it. I have not had it fried.

I make turtle soup whenever I'm unlucky enough to snag one and get it in to the shore. It's been 4 or 5 years now.

 

My dad and my grandpa on his side used to take us turtle "hunting" when I was little though.

 

Taste depends largely on how you cook it. Turtle and frog legs have always reminded me of one another. It's light tasting, but has kind of the texture of a chicken thigh.

 

I usually make my burgoo recipe when I'm looking to cook it, but I've also made turtle soup...I've got my grandma's recipe for that.

 

I've also got an old cookbook from the late 1940s called "Out Of Kentucky Kitchens" that includes a turtle soup recipe that I've been meaning to try. The forward for the cookbook was written by Bowling Green native Duncan Hines...and it also includes recipes for the Louisville Brown Hotel's original Hot Brown, the Brown's Cold Brown (which I didn't know was even a thing until I bought the cookbook), Miss Jennie Benedict's original recipe for Benedictine Sandwich Spread, and a pretty idiot proof beer cheese recipe.

 

Benedictine sandwich spread is heavenly. Love that green stuff!!!!

I ate it when I was a young boy. My dad had a friend who went by the nickname Slug. He was an eastern Kentucky native but had moved to Indiana for work years earlier. About twice a summer he would visit us and he would coax my brothers into going with him up and down various creeks in the county to catch mud turtles. I wouldn't do what he did for anything but he would use one hand and stick it under rocks on the banks of the creek and pull out big turtles. The catch would be placed in large burlap bags, which he called "coffee sacks".

Afterwards he killed and cut them up. I'll not explain his method because I didn't watch very often and his methods were not nice for the turtle, to say the least.

Mom would prepare them for a meal. I tried a few bites but that was it. Not tasted the meat since.

Never had it. Don't care to ever try it.

Never had it. Don't want to try it. Always have big snapping turtles around the Compound after a big rain though and plenty in and around our ponds.

My dad used to fry them ever once in a while, I've always liked it.

Never had it but willing to try.