Terrapin Station revisited

My Grandmother recently sent me some pictures including a couple of her parents. Her Mom, my Great Grandmother, was a teeny lady. I remember seeing her once when she was extremely old. Must've been about 4'7" or something - and she had 11 kids. Whew! My Ma mentioned that this woman used to make her grandsons turtle soup. And my first thought was mock turtle soup, but then a wave of horror hit me when I realised it was probably in the 1940s and so I had to ask, "With a real turtle?" "Yes," Mom said.

Oh man. So I looked up some info on how to make this soup although I never would because I view turtles more as pets than edibles. As anyone would imagine, the most difficult part is catching and cleaning the turtle. Chopping its head off doesn't kill it so the head can still bite you (and who can blame it?) and the body can still crawl away. When it stops wanting to clear out, dip it in boiling water to scrape off the exterior skin. Then remove the shell and after that scrape off the fat. Or you can take the easy, but more expensive route and buy turtle meat, although it's probably not carried by most grocery stores and can cost from $14.75-$19.75 per pound.