The curiosities of food

by P. L. Simmonds

Soon after the fall of the waters of the Orinoco, which begins in February, millions of turtle deposit their eggs among the sand, and the Indians obtain a rich harvest of food. From the eggs they procure a rich oil termed ‘mantega,’ which is preserved in pots. A good deal is sent down the Amazon, fully to the value of £2,000, and several thousand persons are occupied in its preparation.

The eggs are not very large, but about the size of a bantam’s egg. The stratum of eggs in the sand is ascertained by a pole thrust in, the mean depth being about three feet, and the harvest of eggs is estimated like the produce of a well cultivated acre; an acre, accurately measured, of 120 feet long, and 30 wide, having been known to yield 100 jars of oil. The eggs, when collected, are thrown into long troughs of water, and being broken and stirred with shovels, they remain exposed to the sun till the yolk, the oily part, is collected on the surface, and has time to inspissate; as fast as this oily part is collected on the surface of the water, it is taken off and boiled over a quick fire. This animal oil, or tortoise grease, when prepared, is limpid, inodorous, and scarcely yellow. It is used, not merely to burn in lamps, but in dressing victuals, to which it imparts no disagreeable taste. It is not easy, however, to produce oil of turtle’s eggs quite pure. It has generally a putrid smell, owing to the mixture of addled eggs. The total gathering of the three shores, between the junction of the Orinoco with the Apure, where the collection of eggs is annually made, is 5,000 jars, and it takes about 5,000 eggs to furnish one jar of oil.

In the Comarca of the Rio Nigro, the value of the turtle oil imported in 1840 was 6,000 dollars; and from the small town of Barra, on the Amazon, in 1850, turtle oil of the value of 1818 dollars was sent. It is filled in pots, of which 1628 were made in Santarrem, a mile above the mouth of the Tapajos.

Turtle oil is employed for various purposes. In some of the West India islands, it is used when fresh in the place of butter, or salad oil, and also for lamps.

The eggs of most of the species are excellent, being both nutritive and agreeable to the taste; those of the green turtle are especially fine. The white, or albuminous portion, does not, however, harden on boiling.

The large tree lizard, popularly termed the guana, (Iguana tuberculata, Laur. Syn. 49) is certainly not very attractive in appearance, and yet by most persons its flesh is highly esteemed, being reckoned as delicate as chicken, and but little inferior to turtle in flavour.

It is about three feet long, from the head to the extremity of the tail, and covered with a soft skin of a bluish green colour on the back and legs; on the sides and belly, nearly white. It has a pouch of loose skin under its throat, of a light green; eyes black; and claws, of which there are three or five on each foot, sharply pointed. A fringed skin, or kind of mane, runs along from the head to the tail, which it erects when irritated, and will then snap hold of anything with great tenacity; but it is perfectly harmless if undisturbed. The bite is painful, but is not dangerous.

This ugly-looking tree lizard, which looks like an alligator in miniature, is considered a great delicacy in most tropical countries. However white and tender the flesh may be when cooked, when one of its fore paws happens to stick up in the dish, it reminds one too much of the allegator to eat it with any great relish.

I know no animal, or rather reptile, whose appearance is so little calculated to tempt man to eat of its flesh; and yet, despite the repugnance that results from its looks, neither Ude nor Soyer could have compounded any dish that would compare to the delicacy of a well-dressed iguana.

We all know that the turtle is most delicious, yet did we see it for the first time, we might call it with the rustic ‘a great sea toad.’ The appearance of the turtle does not carry a letter of recommendation to the kitchen; accordingly, his introduction to the Lord Mayor’s table was rather tardy, and we learn from Sir Hans Sloane that, at the beginning of the last century, turtle was only eaten in Jamaica by the poor.