Folks,

I have cleaned many a turtle, cut off their head, let them bleed out, flip them upside down on a large piece of firewood set on end, put a nail though the shell on both sides of the tail to hold him in place and then start skinning.  Takes me 30-45 minutes to clean turtle.  Then I read this: If still alive, have it bite on a stick and behead it with an axe. Put the turtle in boiling water for 5 to 8 minutes - it relaxes the muscles. Cut off the claws and, turned over, cut skin all way around. Pull the skin down the legs to the feet and cut off feet.

With a sharp knife or saw, cut the substance connecting the top and bottom shells and pry off the bottom. Remove the entrails and all the yellow fat. Cut out the four quarters and soak them overnight in salt water.

Which would be a WHOLE bunch easier than I have been doing it.  My question is......have any of you heard about doing it this way?

ONG

I've done a few, but not with hot water.

I learned when I shot my first alligator to pack it in ice to keep the meat firmer while cleaning. Left it packed overnight and butchered it about 6 hours later.

I tried it with a turtle one time and it helped. Before they always seemed loose and squishy. ( sorry best way I can describe reptile flesh)

Loose and squishy is pretty much dead on.   Did the turtles kick after their "chill time"?

Stick, knife to the neck, scald then separate, that's the way I was taught.

Slightly off topic but still relevant...
Be careful eating turtles.   Take a look at a principle called Bio-accumulation sometime.  It works like this...  little plankton and tiny organisms gather some pollution.  No big deal.  Minnows eat the little critters, and end up with a bit higher concentration of pollution.  A perch eats many minnows over its life, and thus ends up with contaminant levels many times higher that the minnows.  Eat bass eats dozens and dozens of perch, so  a mature bass has a pollutant level many times higher than the perch, and then the muskie eats the bass.  Its got a ton of pollutants.  Also factor in lifespans.....  more time alive, more time to end up with concentrated pollutants.

Nothing around here lives longer than a big old snapping turtle.  And when those big muskies and pike and bas die, what eats em?  The turtle.  In a sense the turtle is the top of the pollutant food chain.  Around here our turtles have PCB, and metals concentrations that are off the charts high.  As in never, ever, ever eat.

I'm sure this isn't the case everywhere.  But the principles of bioaccumulation and live span mean turtles typically gather and retain a shit ton of pollution.  Eat with caution.

Fro

Not that I recall. I cut the heads off. Let them bleed out for about 30 minutes and then stuck in a cooler with a couple bags of ice.

Left it overnight and then cleaned them.

I'm not a big fan of turtle meat but sometimes the kids want to try new things so we caught a couple 10 pounders and cooked some turtle stew.

Alligator is way better in my opinion as long as you don't overcook it....

we find the bathtub      with tepid water and  dog shampoo works the best.

Could you 'splain for the ignorant please

When I read the thread title, I thought the same thing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXhX9tXTUao

Haven't done any since the '70s but that's what my Dad and G'Pa did:
bite, chop, into the pot.
They'd sometimes flip out and claw and thrash like crazy, even w/out a head. Freaked me out.