Tortoiscshell and the Turtle Fisheries, 367 



mincing the flesh fine and cooking it in its own shell. 

 Here is the recipe given for preparing and cooking it: 

 " The plastron or buckler is the shell of the belly, on 

 which is left three or four inches of flesh, with all the fat, 

 this being green, and of a very delicate flavour. The 

 plastron is placed in the oven. It is seasoned with lemon 

 juice, capsicum or cayenne, salt, pepper, cloves, and eggs 

 beaten up. The oven ought not to be too hot, as the flesh 

 of the turtle being tender it should be cooked slowly. 

 While it is baking the flesh must be pierced from time 

 to time with a wooden skewer, so that the gravy may 

 penetrate all parts. The shell is sent up to table, and the 

 meat carved out from it. I have never eaten anything 

 more appetizing or better flavoured." This is not the 

 recipe of a royal chef de cuisine, or of an ordinary 

 cook, but of Father Labat, a Dominican monk, and we 

 know that in all that relates to the table, and especially the 

 food of fast-days, monks are the authorities. The old 

 buccaneers — from whom this dish was named — having no 

 ovens, cooked their turtle in a trench covered with lighted 

 charcoal, and this mode of cooking was said to be pre- 

 ferable. But in whatever manner dressed, all agree that 

 the flesh of the turtle is an excellent and palatable food. 



Green turtle soup is now manufactured in America 

 and the West Indies. A manufactory at Key West, 

 Florida, puts up in air tight cans for exportation 200,000 

 lbs. yearly, and employs 10 vessels and 66 men in 

 collecting the turtle. It is sent to England and Cuba 

 chiefly. At Jamaica some factories are also doing a good 

 business in a preparation worthy of the gastronomic 

 patronage of an aldermanic banquet, so rich is it in green 

 fat and calipee, calipash, and those delicate gelatinous 

 morsels appertaining to the fins. A steady supply of 



