turtle for dinner !!

lop the head off, bust the shell where the sides connect the top and bottom halves. clean out the guts and wind pips, skin the legs, tail and neck hide off, then fillet the top shell from the tissue, soak in some cold water a day or so with a lil salt and garlic. bring your water to a boil, add in ur onions, maters, taters, if u like okra, throw some of them in there too, some more minced garlic, more salt and add pepper. after bout 15-20 min of boiling ur veggies, throw in the meat and bring water to a low roll/boil for another 1-1.5 hrs. once the meat has fallen away from the bone, cut the fire, let it simmer down to where its safe to eat from the heat.

if you don't like or want half shell stew, do all the above, but instead of just skinning it out, debone if u want to, or you can leave bone in and nugget the meat up, roll in a slat and pepper flour mix, add in a lil cajun seasoning to the flour and do a shake and bake as if it were fish. or you can do the prep for a stew, but instead of boiling it, you can throw in some rice with the stew veggies and seasoning, put it n the oven covered up good so you get a good steam on the rice and veggies, and cook it for 1.5-2hrs in the oven. all three cooking methods work good for beaver, coon, possum and nutria rat. just watch the possum, you may have to drain some of the fat off before putting the left overs up, or skin the fat off the top before reheating.

hope that helps or gets you pointed in the right direction, and don't be scared to add or take away the veggies and seasoning. happy eating, and if you got any left over, let me know, ill give u my address here in oregon and ill pay for shipping. gotta let these aussies and new zelander flt instructors try some american southern bayou cooking.