Foods and Their Adulteration: Origin, Manufacture, and Composition of Food Products; Description of Common Adulterations, Food Standards, and National Food Laws and RegulationsWiley, Harvey Washington
Science
Foods and Their Adulteration: Origin, Manufacture, and Composition of Food Products; Description of Common Adulterations, Food Standards, and National Food Laws and Regulations
Wiley, Harvey Washington
Food; Food adulteration and inspection
The above data show that the shrimp in the canned state has less water
in it than in the fresh state, and contains one-fourth of its weight of
protein.
=Aquatic Reptiles.=--All forms of turtle may be used for edible
purposes, both of the fresh-water and salt-water species. Both the
turtle and terrapin are amphibious animals; that is, they can live
either in the water or on the land. Among the turtles the marine
variety known as the green turtle is most highly prized for food
purposes. Its Latin name is _Chelonia mydas_. It grows sometimes to an
enormous size, weighing several hundred pounds, and specimens weighing
50 and 100 pounds are not unusual. It is utilized chiefly for making
soup, and green turtle soup is considered of high quality by experts.
The flesh is also edible, and in the making of some varieties of green
turtlesoup pieces of the flesh are included.
_Composition of the Green Turtle._--The edible portion of the green
turtle has the following composition:
Water, 79.78 percent
Protein, 19.83 „
Fat, .53 „
Ash, 1.20 „
The edible portion of the green turtle is not very large in proportion
to its weight, as it forms only from 20 to 24 percent of the whole
weight of the turtle.
Among the reptiles there are several aquatic species which are used
as food. The most noted of these is the diamond-back terrapin, which
is found in the salt-water bays, lagoons, and marshes of our Atlantic
coast from New Jersey to Texas. Its center of greatest abundance is
in Chesapeake Bay. There is no fish or other water animal that has
a higher value for edible purposes than the terrapin. The extreme
delicacy of its flavor, the richness of its aroma, and its easy
digestibility give to it a rank which perhaps no other usual food
product possesses. In addition to this the increased scarcity of
the terrapin, especially the more famous variety of it, namely, the
diamond-back, has gradually increased the cost until at the present
time the terrapin is eaten only by the rich. In the United States it
exists along the whole Atlantic coast from New York southward and also
along the Gulf coast. Formerly it was most abundant on the Maryland
coast, but the nearness of this field to the great markets of the
country has resulted in such a depletion of the stock as to make the
terrapin very scarce. Many attempts have been made at artificial
growing of terrapin and these have been more or less successful, but
have not met with pronounced success which has been expected. The
enclosure in which the terrapin are kept, viz., the “crawl,” is a
feature in the artificial cultivation or breeding of these marine
vertebrates. It is to be hoped that greater success in the future will
attend the artificial breeding of terrapin, since the natural stock
seems well on the way to extinction.
_Composition of the Terrapin._--Edible portion:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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