The curiosities of food

by P. L. Simmonds

The curious New Holland tortoise (Chelodina longicollis), first described by Shaw, which, as far as the head and neck is concerned, reminds one rather of a snake than a tortoise, is abundant in some of the lakes of Western Australia, and is considered by the natives a great treat, as are also the snakes and lizards.

Chief Justice Temple, of Honduras, from whose lively and interesting letters to the Society of Arts I have already quoted, says—‘Another article which might be preserved and exported, and which would, I have little doubt, be highly prized by epicures in England, is the liver of the hiccatee. The hiccatee is the fresh water turtle or tortoise, and is, I believe, altogether unknown in Europe. It never approaches anything like the size of the large turtles. The weight of the hiccatee seldom exceeds 20 lbs. It has not got fins like a turtle, or to be more correct, the sea tortoise, but round, webbed-feet, each having five claws, like those of a duck. It is made for the land, therefore, as well as the water. It does not, however, make the former its home, and its feet are evidently intended merely to enable it, when one pool becomes dry, to travel in search of another. The hiccatee is generally caught in the dry season, when going across the country in pursuit of water. The feet when dressed are gelatinous, but the flesh is dry and fibrous. It is, however, the liver which renders this species of tortoise so highly estimable. It is a dark olive colour, and immensely large. If this were preserved in oil with truffles, it would be considered far superior to the goose’s liver of which the pâté de foie gras is made.’

The following way of effectually shooting a turtle may be interesting to the sporting world generally, and aldermen in particular. ‘The soft-shell turtle is found throughout the south, and abounds in the rivers and bayous of Louisiana, where they are esteemed a delicacy. They are so shy as to elude the various inventions which are adopted to capture them; the rifle has, therefore, been resorted to; and, though easily killed by a fair marksman, when he finds them sunning themselves on the floating or projecting trunk of some old tree, he still often fails to secure his prize, since they drop into the bayous, are swept down into the current, and scarcely, if ever, secured. To remedy this, a gentleman of Louisiana adopted the following method successfully. He cut a piece of wood, one inch long, and rounded it so as to fit easily in his rifle; around the middle, crosswise, he cut a small groove, so as to secure to it a twine some six or seven inches long; at the other end of this string he attached the ball, by passing the string through a bore in the ball, and then knotting the end of the string. The ball is first inserted in the rifle; the string and wood follow, and all are rammed down. The turtle is now shot, and as the ball passes through the turtle, it enters the tree or log some one or two inches; the piece of wood, being too light to enter the shell of the turtle, is left suspended. So that, at a single shot, the game is killed, strung, and hung up.’ Of course, this is from an American paper.

The flesh of the land tortoise is largely used for food, both fresh and when salted, in the Gallipagos Archipelago and other islands of the Pacific; and a beautifully clear oil is prepared from their fat. They are eaten in Australia by the aborigines; and in Russia, on the shores of the Mediterranean, and some parts of Germany, are fattened for the table, and are esteemed a great delicacy. Wallace, in his journeys up the Amazon, says he found the land tortoise for dinner as good as turtle.

Captain Dampier, when he visited the Gallipagos, in 1684, records ‘That there is no place in the world so much stored with guanoes and land tortoises as these isles. The first are fat and of an extraordinary size, and exceeding tame; and the land tortoises so numerous, that some hundred men may subsist on them for a considerable time, being very fat, and as pleasant food as a pullet, and of such bigness that one of them weighs 150 or 200 lbs.; and are from two feet to two feet six inches over the belly; whereas, in any other places, I never met with any above 30 lbs. weight, though I have heard them say that at St. Lawrence or Madagascar there are also very large ones.’

Wafer, another old voyager, when at these islands, salted the flesh of the land tortoise for use on shipboard, and fried the fat and converted it into lard or oil, of which they secured 60 large jars.

Tortoises of an immense size are found on many of the islands of the Pacific. Mr. Lawson, a vice-governor of the Gallipagos Archipelago, states that he has seen several so large that it required six or eight men to lift them from the ground; and that some had afforded as much as 200 lbs. of meat. Dr. Darwin remarks: ‘I was always amused when overtaking one of these great monsters, as it was quietly pacing along, to see how suddenly, the instant I passed, it would draw in its head and legs, and, uttering a deep hiss, fall to the ground with a heavy sound, as if struck dead. I frequently got on their backs, and then giving a few raps on the hinder part of their shells, they would rise up and walk away; but I found it very difficult to keep my balance. The flesh of this animal is largely employed, both fresh and salted; and a beautifully clear oil is prepared from the fat. When a tortoise is caught, the man makes a slit in the skin near its tail, so as to see inside its body, whether the fat under the dorsal plate is thick. If it is not, the animal is liberated; and it is said to recover soon from this strange operation.

In chasing the turtle, a man standing ready in the bow of the boat dashes through the water upon the turtle’s back; then clinging with both hands by the shell of its neck, he is carried away till the animal becomes exhausted and is secured. In the Chagos Archipelago, the natives, by a horrible process, take the shell from the back of the living turtle. It is covered with burning charcoal, which causes the outer shell to curl upwards; it is then forced off with a knife, and before it becomes cold flattened between two boards. After this barbarous process, the animal is suffered to regain its native element, where, after a certain time, a new shell is formed; it is, however, too thin to be of any service, and the animal always appears languishing and sickly.

Dampier, in 1684, speaks of three or four kinds of land tortoises being eaten in the West Indies. ‘One,’ he says, ‘is called by the Spaniards Hackatee, which keep most in fresh-water ponds; they have small legs and long necks, and flat feet, and commonly weigh betwixt ten and fifteen pounds. The second sort they call Tenopen (terrapin?), much less than the former, and something rounder; but for the rest not unlike them, except that the shell on their backs is naturally coloured with a curious carved work. Both sorts afford very good meat, and these last delight in low marshy places, and are in vast numbers at the Isle of Pines, near Cuba, among the woods.’

Turtle would seem to have been first introduced in England, as an article of food, about the middle of the 17th century, for a record in the Gentleman’s Magazine, under date August 31, 1753, shows that it was then a rarity. ‘A turtle, weighing 350 lbs., was ate at the King’s Arms tavern, Pall Mall; the mouth of an oven was taken down to admit the part to be baked.’ The locality for eating them now has been transferred principally to the city; and the Ship and Turtle, the London Tavern, Birch’s (in Cornhill), and the Guildhall or Mansion-house, are perhaps the largest depôts of consumption. Steam communication has greatly increased the imports, which amount to about 15,000 in the year, weighing from one quarter to three hundred weight, and valued at, probably, £8,000. Not that all these shielded animals can be called ‘lively’ turtle, for the voyage has very often a damaging effect upon them.