Following My Handlebars To Check Out Cowtown Wakeboarding & A Bridge To Nowhere

That Is Not Me Wakeboarding At Cowtown Wakepark

Today I decided to emulate one of my favorite blogs, that blog being Hometown by Handlebar and go check some locations in my current hometown via my own handlebars.

We'll be following the handlebars from Cowtown Wakepark to the Phyllis Tilley Bridge to Nowhere.

The parking lot for the Cowtown Wakepark is also a Trinity Trail parking lot. Which is one of the reasons  it was the starting point.

I would think a nice warm day, with that day being the first Saturday of summer, that Fort Worth's premiere urban wakeboarding lake would be really really busy.

Well, I thought wrong. There were two people in the water being pulled around the pond. The mechanism that does the pulling is ultra-quiet. I could not figure out how it worked. Not that I spent all that much time pondering. I'd not noticed the little pond on the right, in the picture, til today. It appeared to be some sort of training pond. There was one person in that pond who looked as if he or she was trying to stay on a waterboard, without much success.

In the main pond it looked like there are only two tow bars. Which would seem to mean only two people can be wakeboarding at a time. The wakeboarders zipped rather quickly around the pond, so I would think more than two at a time could get dicey. No idea how this works. You wakeboard for 10 minutes then give it up for the next person in line? Not that there appeared to be a line.

I think I've mentioned before that the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle has a real penchant for signage. The penchant has grown since my last exposure.

Now you have TRVB signage, plus signage from the TRVB's partner in delusion, the TRWD, as in Tarrant Regional Water District. Currently, you can stop what you are doing on the Trinity Trail and aim your smart phone at one of the ubiquitous "CHECK OUT our NEW Trinity iPhone App!" signs and get yourself some sort of Trinity Trail App.

At trail junctions there are now signs, courtesy of the TRWD, pointing you in the right direction to get to various Trinity Trail destinations. On the south side  of the sign in the picture we are directed to Stockyards, Marine Creek, Buck Sansom Park, Cowtown Wakepark, Gateway Park and Sycamore Creek. The north side of this sign points the way to Downtown, Panther Island Pavilion, Trinity Park, Cowtown Wakepark, Gateway Park and Sycamore Creek.

The redundancy in mentioning Cowtown Wakepark and Gateway Park and others on both sides of the sign is because they are all accessed by crossing that dam bridge across the Trinity River you see in the picture.

I find the fact that Panther Island Pavilion and Cowtown Wakepark are on these signs to be interesting. I remember when the Santa Fe Rail Market was on directional signage in Downtown Fort Worth with me remarking that that will soon need to be altered. I thought the same thing when I saw Cowtown Wakepark on the signs, particularly after seeing how meager its patronage was today.

Rockin' The River Panther Island Pavilion

As for Panther Island Pavilion. That is a Rockin' the River Inner Tube Happy Hour thing that is part of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle. I was surprised to see that a sort of permanent pavilion has now been installed at the Rockin' the River Inner Tube Happy Hour location.

The permanent stage was not the only thing that surprised me in the Rockin' the River zone.

Surprises like there are now two sets of Fort Worth style modern restrooms for the comfort of Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floaters.

One of the restrooms was real upscale. With showers.

I don't know if you are required to take a shower before getting in the river, so as to not add to the pollution, or you have the option of taking a shower when you get out of the river so as to wash off the pollution.

The goofiest thing I saw in the Rockin' the River zone was 3 big, Thanksgiving Day Macy's Parade Float type things floating in the river.

The giant inner tube says it was MADE IN FORT WORTH. Is the creature floating in the inner tube some sort of caricature of Fort Worth's former mayor Moncrief?

Continuing on, let's jump ahead to the most surprising thing I saw today, that being the current condition of the Phyllis Tilley Memorial Bridge to Nowhere.

For some reason I thought the Phyllis Tilley Memorial Bridge to Nowhere was finished, opened, ready to transport bikers and pedestrians from one side of the Trinity River to the other. I was wrong. Instead I saw one of the messiest construction sites I have ever seen. What an eyesore. It did not look as if much work is going on. Wind was blowing construction flotsam up against the cyclone fence. I saw one big chunk fly over the fence.

I think I will end this blogging with the bridge debacle. I may do a part two of today's look at my current hometown by handlebars.

I almost forgot one more thing. One of my goals today was to check out the current state of the supposedly soon to open first new drive-in movie theater in America in a large American city in decades. I could find nothing that looked like a drive-in under construction.

Did Fort Worth get hoodwinked and hornswoggled again?

Electronic Postcards From Alaska

Postcards are so last century.

I've decided Travel Blogs are the postcards of this century.

Til something better comes along.

Currently I am taking two virtual trips to Alaska, one on land, one on water.

The water trip began in late March, starting in Nanaimo, British Columbia, slowly floating north to Alaska, doing a lot of fishing and catching a lot of fish along the way. I've lost track of how many King Salmon have been caught.

I'll call the boatbound people "The Fishers" because that is sort of their name. I've not asked if it was okay if I shared their blog, so I won't. But I did swipe a cool picture from their latest blog post. That being a humongous moon rising above a snowy mountain. The Fishers currently have made it as far north as Sitka.

I saw The Fishers here in Fort Worth, back in September of 2010. They were passing through town towing a boat they'd bought south of Houston. The boat serves as a transit ship from the mother ship, that being this humongous yacht type vessel The Fishers had built for them at some boat building place down in the Los Angeles zone.


The Fishers having a smaller boat on their bigger boat is the water based equivalent of the Rosie the Rat Dog entourage towing a SUV behind their RV.

Rosie the Rat Dog and her entourage have now made it to Alaska. They successfully ferried across the Yukon River yesterday, entering Alaska.

My sister emailed me pictures, this morning, of the ferry crossing and the Welcome to Alaska sign, among others. But, these pictures have not been blogged yet. Apparently it may be a few days before they are back in an Internet enabled zone.

My sister's description of yesterday's leg of their journey is amusing....

Hey, we survived the ferry crossing today and last night's sunset was the most amazing one I have ever seen! It finally set after 12:45 this morning!  Today's drive was only  187 miles and it took ALL DAY!  The road was dirt and gravel, potholes and gravel, steep slopes and gravel and one grizzly bear!!!!  Not many guard rails along dropoffs, the sort of road that, as a kid, would have had me crying. Right now we are in Tok, Alaska, our phones now work and we may stay here two days to do laundry and to just sit still.

I believe that picture at the top is the sunset my sister is referencing.

My sister's reference to driving a road with steep dropoffs and that type thing causing her to cry as a kid is so true. Dropoffs and a lightning storm would send her into hysterics. I remember the worst steep dropoffs sister hysterics happened on our first trip to Yellowstone National Park. At that point in time Interstate 84 was under construction, that being a much improved road to take vehicles from the Columbia Valley up into the Blue Mountains of Oregon and the Umatilla National Forest, and beyond.

Before the freeway was built, part of the road up into the Blue Mountains, on the route to La Grande and beyond, was called Dead Man's Pass. That name alone was enough to make my sister nervous. The road itself twisted and turned, switchbacking to gain elevation. With very steep dropoffs.

Well, our car overheated. It was a new Chevy Impala and it was prone to overheating when called upon to pull a trailer up a steep hill. My dad had to pull off to the side of the road, right where the dropoff was steep. My brother and I were loving it. My sister not so much. I think it may have been my brother, or it may have been me, who said, we are slipping over the side.

This set my sister off into hysterics. My brother and I found this funny at the time. I vaguely remember we got in some sort of trouble for causing our sister to cry.

Near the summit of Deadman's Pass sits Emigrant Springs State Heritage Area, a state park, where we camped for the night after the ordeal of passing Deadman's Pass. At that point in time you could still see the wagon wheel ruts of the Oregon Trail.

Rosie the Rat Dog's Alaska! Blog is making me want to go on a roadtrip. Not to Alaska though.

I just remembered one more amusing thing in my sister's email that gives you an idea of what wimps Pacific Northwesterners are when it gets just a little bit warm...

Cloudy out right now after a day with the temps over 80 degree's. Right now we are in the motor home with the a/c running, as it is so hot out.

80 degrees? Right now at my location it is 96 with the humidity making it feel like 109.  I also have my a/c running. Whining about the temperature apparently is in my DNA.

Unable To Take The Bus To Walk With The HOT Village Creek Indian Ghosts

Village Creek Blue Bayou

With a temperature of 95, feeling like 112, I was in no mood to get HOT doing some Tandy Hills hill hiking today during the time frame when my regularly scheduled maintenance hike takes place.

Instead of the HOT hills I opted for the shade provided by the big oak trees which date back to the days they shaded Native Americans who lived by Village Creek before the Texans arrived in town and evicted them.

Yes, I walked today with the Indian Ghosts who haunt the Village Creek Natural Historical Area in the biggest town in America without public mass transit, that being Arlington, Texas.

With no wind blowing, HOT air and high humidity, I had myself a mighty fine steambath today.

In the picture the Village Creek Blue Bayou looks almost inviting for swimming purposes.

Well, my poor photographic skills were unable to make visible the pond scum that floats on top of the Blue Bayou. The pond scum negated any swimming appeal.

Look what the current forecast has in store for us. Our first chance to break the record for most 100 degrees (or higher) days in a row, with the first 100 degree day of the year scheduled to arrive on Sunday.

Cowtown Wakepark Is Not Fort Worth's Only Wakeboard Lake

No, that is not a spruced up, upgraded, landscaped Cowtown Wakepark you are looking at in the picture.

But, wakeboarding does take place on this lake.

Several weeks ago Elsie Hotpepper asked me if I knew there was a wakeboard lake in my neighborhood.

I told Elsie I knew of the watercraft testing lake on the south end of the Riverbend industrial park, but that I'd seen no wakeboarding taking place there.

Well, yesterday, on my way back from Hurst, driving south on Loop 820, I glanced to my right, as I passed Riverbend Lake, to see a wakeboarder zipping across the lake being pulled by a cable of the sort that zips wakeboarders around the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's tiny Cowtown Wakepark lake.

The Cowtown Wakepark lake is a little pond on the south side of the Trinity River. The Riverbend Wakepark lake is a much bigger pond on the north side of the Trinity River. Very little space separates either pond from the river. Both flood when the Trinity River floods.

I have seen water skiing taking place, over the years, in Riverbend Lake. The Cowtown Wakepark pond is not big enough for water skiing.

When I took the picture you see above, looking east across Riverbend Lake towards Loop 820, I saw a young lady also looking at the lake. I asked the young lady if this lake was open to the public. She told me it is a private testing lake. I already knew that, but was looking for confirmation, and hoping to be told that it was about to open to the public.

I think the City of Fort Worth should use its eminent domain power to take Riverbend Lake away from whoever owns it and make it a public use lake. The water in this lake appeared to be much cleaner than the water in the Cowtown Wakepark pond.

Fort Worth lacks a public swimming lake, something I doubt any other town in America, the size of Fort Worth, lacks.

J.D. Granger touted Cowtown Wakepark as the world's premiere urban wakeboard lake. Apparently J.D. has never been to East Fort Worth. Perhaps J.D. should arrange to have one of his notorious junkets visit East Fort Worth on a fact finding mission.

France's Millau Viaduct Vs. Fort Worth's Phyllis Tilley Bridge

No, that is not one of Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's non-signature bridges you are looking at in the picture.

The bridge you are looking at in the picture is the Millau Viaduct in France.

Why are you looking at a picture of a bridge in France, you may be sitting there wondering.

Well, stay with me and all will become clear.

A few minutes ago I got an email from Beale. Beale is part of the Fort Worth Underground. When someone sends me an email and does not tell me that it is not blogging fodder, I make the assumption that the email is blogging fodder.

Apparently Beale had a conversation with a member of the Fort Worth Underground named Bert. In that conversation Beale and Bert wondered about the per square foot cost of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

We begin with Beale's comment about Bert's TRV cost analysis...

I have never looked at the TRV on a Sq. Ft. basis. So, if they sell the land to developers... man are the taxpayers taking a hit!

What follows is what Bert told Beale about the cost of the TRVB, plus another cost comparison...

Beale,

Apropos of our brief discussion today about my contention that the $909,000,000 (and counting) of our tax dollars that the Trinity River Vision is spending to connect 34 acres with Downtown equating to $26,735,294 per acre or a mere $613.75 per square foot of dirt . . . here is a rough cost comparison of the Phyllis Tilley Bridge to an engineering marvel in France,  the Millau Viaduct, which I am not saying is justifiable but, it did break new ground in engineering and can be used by everyone . . . in their daily pursuit of business, etc.

Regards, Bert

Fort Worth has done it again!

The Millau Viaduct in France is the highest bridge in the world (see it on Google), an engineering wonder that bridges the Tarn valley between Clermont-Ferrand and Beziers which will shorten the route from Paris to the Mediterranean on the French freeway, A-75, for all those hard-vacationing Parisians.

Designed by Sir Norman Foster, Architect, Manchester, England

Weight  400,000 tons
Height  1,125'   (50' taller than the Eiffel Tower)
Length  8,071'
Width  104'
Deck  839,384 square feet

Cost $523,000,000

Cost per square foot = $623.00

The Phyllis Tilley Memorial Bridge for pedestrian and bicycle traffic only, in Fort Worth, TX is a financial head-scratcher that spans the mighty Trinity River between its west bank and its yonder east bank in Trinity Park.

Weight ?
Height   Not very
Length 384'
Width  10'
Deck  3,840 square feet

Cost $2,500,000

Cost per square foot = $651.00

Designed by Miguel Rosales, Architect, Boston, Massachusetts

How do we keep getting horse traded into these incredibly expensive and unnecessary projects on the banks of the Trinity River by the likes of Bing Thom who brought us the indefensibly expensive Downtown Junior College at $1,500 per square foot and Miguel Rosales who has now bested the cost per square foot of this Anglo/French bridge?

_________________________________

Well, I've only been in this part of the planet for a short time, but I think I know part of the answer as to why Fort Worth keeps getting horse traded and hoodwinked.

The town does not have a real newspaper. Except for Fort Worth Weekly.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram does not perform a normal newspaper's function as the Fourth Estate, acting as the people's advocate, acting as a watchdog on the lookout for crooked politicians and crooked political deals.

Examples?

Rather than point out the obvious ridiculousness of the assertion that a sporting goods store would be the #1 tourist attraction in Texas, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram trumpeted over and over again what a great thing it was for Fort Worth to have a Cabela's come to town and bring with it millions of tourists a year.

Not only did Cabela's not become the #1 tourist attraction in Texas, it soon was not even the only Cabela's in Texas. And now the Fort Worth Cabela's is not even the only Cabela's in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

Have you read anywhere in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram a fessing up to their part in the Cabela's tax break gaining con job?

An extremely lame, obviously doomed to fail, public works project called the Santa Fe Rail Market opened with the Fort Worth Star Telegram telling its readers this little boondoggle was modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market and Pubic Markets in Europe and would be the first Public Market in Texas.

After the failure of the Santa Fe Rail Market have you read the Star-Telegram fessing up to misleading its readers regarding the Santa Fe Rail  Market?

What did you think of the investigative reporting job the Star-Telegram did into the credentials of J.D. Granger when a corrupt act of nepotism saw him appointed as the person in charge of running the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle?

Yes, you're right, you read no investigative reporting in the Star-Telegram regarding J.D. Granger's qualifications.

You also did not read an outraged editorial in the Star-Telegram regarding the obviously ridiculously nepotistic appointment of Fort Worth's Congresswoman, Kay Granger's son, J.D., to a job for which he had zero qualifications to run a project from which his mother stood to gain financially.

Have you read an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram regarding how much it cost the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle to build a little lake in which the Cowtown Wakepark could operate, which J.D. Granger trumpeted as a great feat, making the sport of wakeboarding available to all of Fort Worth's citizens?

When the Cowtown Wakepark suffers its inevitable failure, will you read an article in the Star-Telegram about the failure, like you read regarding the Santa Fe Rail Market and Cabela's failures?

That's right, you read nothing in the Star-Telegram examining those previous failures and you will read none when the Cowtown Wakepark fails.

If Fort Worth had a real newspaper, something like the Cowtown Wakepark, Santa Fe Rail Market, Cabela's tax breaks and the Trinity River Vision would never get off the ground, because an informed public would not put up with the foolishness.

With no real newspaper, most of the Fort Worth public is oblivious to the foolishness.

Oblivious to the foolishness, while Rome burns, I mean, the Trinity River Vision parties. In private. And in inner tubes floating on the polluted Trinity River.

Which is another thing. What did you think of that investigative reporting the Star-Telegram did into how safe it is to float in the Trinity River?

I'm sure that report is coming soon....

Going To Hurst To The Chisholm Aquatic Center After A Futile Search For A Fort Worth Public Pool

No, that is not one of Fort Worth's many public pools you are looking at in the picture.

The little town of Fort Worth, with a population of nearly 800,000, has no public pools. Or public swimming lakes.

The pool you are looking at in the picture is the Chisholm Aquatic Center in the little town of Hurst, Texas, with a population of almost 40,000.

That makes Fort Worth about 20 times bigger, population-wise, than Hurst, if my math is correct, which it often isn't.

I had to be in Hurst this morning. So, I thought a morning walk around Chisholm Park would be a good thing to do to help clear my head before I had to do what I had to do in Hurst. Even though it was pre-noon, the Chisholm Aquatic Center was very busy.

Which makes a lot of sense, what with the temperature, at that time in the morning, nearing 90, a temperature level which has currently been reached at my location, with the real feel of the temperature being 102. That is getting a little warm.

I don't know what Fort Worth kids do to keep cool if they don't have a pool.

Well, there are those delightful Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats on Thursdays, when, for a few hours, it is safe to get cool in the usually polluted Trinity River.

But, the river is only safe where it passes past downtown Fort Worth. Further downstream, like at Gateway Park, you don't want to be getting cool in the river.

I think I may getting cool in a rare afternoon dip in my non-public Fort Worth pool. You are welcome to join me. Clothing optional.

UPDATE: I have been informed by someone named Anonymous that the City of Fort Worth's Marine Park pool is open this summer. I have pedaled my bike through Marine Park. I do not recollect seeing a public pool. However, a public pool is not the type thing that would stick in my memory.

Rosie The Rat Dog Has Dispatched From Alaska Shaking, Rocking, Rattling & Rolling While Filthy Dirty

This Honda SUV Was White In Washington

Those of us in the Lower 48, monitoring the progress of Rosie the Rat Dog's journey north, on the Rosie the Rat Dog Alaska! Blog, have been a bit concerned due to the fact that there had been no report from Rosie since last Saturday.

Til today.

We can now be a bit less concerned, because Rosie the Rat Dog has published a blog update titled Shake, Rock, Rattle and Roll!

Apparently Rosie the Rat Dog and Entourage are now at the part of the Alaska Highway where the road becomes a bit rough and more weather worn.

Rosie the Rat Dog and Entourage are also far enough north where tonight's sunset will be something they've not seen before. Below is part of Rosie's description of what they will see...

On the Summer Soltice, June 21st, the sun will not set. It will dip to the top of the mountain range and then rise above. Tomorrow we cross the river on a very small ferry and climb into the hills on a highway called "Top of the World" that leads us to our destination of Alaska.

I must remember to email Rosie the Rat Dog and tell her how easy the spelling checker works in the Blogger program, so that we can't cease with alternative spellings like "Soltice" and "increadable."

Though, I sort of liked the new "increadable" word.

I find the picture of my sister's formerly bright white Honda SUV to be a bit surprising. My sister is a bit of a fussbudget about things like keeping her vehicles spotless.

I am not suggesting she is totally neurotic about this, but I won't argue with you if that is what you think. So, to see this level of dirty is a bit shocking.

I hope their caretakers are at least keeping Rosie the Rat Dog and her sisters, Bean and Tilly, less dirty than the SUV.                                                                                                

The First Day Of Summer Sharing The Natural Tandy Hills With Diesel Trucks

Today, with it being the June 20 Summer Solstice, there will be more hours of sunshine, today, than there were yesterday and that there will be tomorrow.

After today we are on the slippery slope sliding towards winter.

In the meantime it is 91 degrees, at my location, with the Heat Index making the temperature really feel like 97.

It was a bit cooler than these not so cool temperatures when I went to the Tandy Hills today.

A couple days ago I was slightly startled by a big turtle basking in the waters below dry Tandy Falls.

Today I was slightly startled by a big white truck that caught my eyes and ears as I crossed the escarpment on top of dry Tandy Falls.

The big white truck had its diesel engine running and its headlights on. No human in sight. When I passed behind the truck I saw the lid was off the sewer access, with a cable running into the big hole in the ground. I looked in the big hole in the ground thinking I might see a human. Instead I saw water rushing by, about 10 feet below the surface.

I continued walking. I crossed the second creek crossing and saw a human ahead of me. When the human saw me he turned around, or so it seemed at the time. This was a bit unsettling. Then I saw the human was turning around to get in an even bigger white truck.

Crossing the nearly washed out Tandy Creek crossings seems as if it must be a bit adventurous in those big white trucks.

I really don't like smelling diesel or sharing the trails with big trucks when I am doing my hiking in a Natural Area. This somehow makes the experience seem less natural.

Other than smelling diesel fumes, this has been a quite fine first day of summer. I expect many more to follow.

Listening To Fosdick Lake Trumpeting Flowers Thinking About My Non Southern Gastronomical Turtle-Free Upbringing

These big orange flowers seemed to be sounding some sort of trumpet call towards Fosdick Lake in Oakland (Lake) Park today.

However, the big orange flowers were silent when I saw them, no trumpet call of any sort.

The temperature was 83, with 78% humidity, supposed making the Real Feel of the temperature 91 degrees, when I left air-conditioned comfort today to seek some salubrious outdoor activity.

The think the humidity measure-er was off.  A wind was blowing. Methinks the Wind Chill Factor was making the Real Feel be something like 76 degrees. Brrrr.

I saw a dozen or more turtles today, jumping off logs in to Fosdick Lake when they felt threatened by my Turtle Soup making presence. Intuitive creatures that they be.

Speaking of Turtle Soup. Yesterday after being unable to find the Tandy Turtle I blogged about my surprise at learning that Turtle Soup actually exists, along with lots of recipes directing one on how to make reptile soup.

Making Turtle Soup generated an amusing comment from someone with the unusual name of Anonymous....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "On The Turtle Free Tandy Hills Thinking About Making Turtle Soup": 

Your non southern gastronomical upbringing is on display. 1881? Most all my semi current regional cookbooks (particularly the Louisianians) include such delicacies and are much less complicated. Perhaps it is still served in New Orleans restaurants though I can't recall my last pre Katrina visit. What I do recall is my first and only taste experience as a child with my parents. A nice Miami restaurant. Tanks of live fish and sea turtles from which you assumed your meal had been captured earlier. Turtle soup in the late 60's-early 70's was still popular in the poor rural areas of the south. If you snagged a turtle while fishing; it went home for dinner. The sophisticated city palate liked it too. The rest of us shuddered. Maybe you should visit a big Asian grocery store and see what they're doing these days. 

I hate it when I inadvertently put my non-southern gastronomical upbringing on display. I have never seen any turtles available in the seafood sections of the Asian grocery stores I visit in Arlington's International District.

I wish Anonymous would have told me what turtle tastes like.

On The Turtle Free Tandy Hills Thinking About Making Turtle Soup

In the picture you are looking west to where the west begins at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth from atop one of the Tandy Hills.

In turtle news, the Tandy Turtle that yesterday had taken up residence in a small puddle at the base of dry Tandy Falls has moved on. I tried to track the Tandy Turtle but I could find not trackable turtle footprints.

Or maybe someone had a hankering for Turtle Soup and brought the Tandy Turtle home for dinner.

Speaking of Turtle Soup, I was curious if such a thing really existed, having heard of Turtle Soup, and sort of always assuming turtle was not really used in this soup, but for some reason it came to have the name "Turtle Soup."

Well, as I so often am, I was wrong.

I now have in my possession a Turtle Soup Recipe, complete with instructions about how to butcher a turtle for eating purposes.

The turtle cooking information came from The Household Cyclopedia of General Information, published in 1881, a handbook of the domestics arts as practiced in American households at that point in time. For some reason the instructions as to how to prepare a turtle refers to the reptile as fish. The butchering info and Turtle Soup Recipe is below, all one big paragraph, in case you feel like having reptile for dinner tonight.....

Procure a fine, lively, fat turtle, weighing about 120 pounds, fish of this weight being considered the best, as their fat is not liable to be impregnated with that disagreeable, strong flavor objected to in fish of larger size. On the other hand, turtles of very small size seldom possess sufficient fat or substance to make them worth dressing. When time permits kill the turtle overnight that it may be left to bleed in a cool place till the next morning when at an early hour it should be cut up for scalding, that being the first part of the operation. If, however, the turtle is required for immediate use, to save time the fish may be scalded as soon as it is killed. The turtle being ready for cutting up, lay it on its back, and with a large kitchen-knife separate the fat or belly-shell from the back by making an incision all round the inner edge of the shell, when all the fleshy parts adhering to the shell have been carefully cut away, it may be set aside. Then detach the intestines by running the sharp edge of a knife closely along the spine of the fish, and remove them instantly in a pail to be thrown away. Cut off the fins and separate the fleshy parts, which place on a dish by themselves til wanted. Take particular care of every particle of the green fat, which lies chiefly at the sockets of the fore-fins, and more or less all round the interior of the fish, if in good condition. Let this fat, which, when in a healthy state, is elastic and of a bluish color while raw, be steeped for several hours in cold spring-water, in order that it may be thoroughly cleansed of all impurities; then with a meat-saw divide the upper and under shells into pieces of convenient size to handle and baying put them with the fins and head into a large vessel containing boiling water, proceed quickly to scald them; by this means they will be separated from the horny substance which covers them, which will then be easily removed. They must then be put into a larger stockpot nearly filling with fresh hot water and left to continue boiling by the side of the stove fire until the glutinous substance separates easily from the bones. Place the pieces of turtle carefully upon clean dishes and put them in the larder to get cold, they should then be cut up into pieces about an inch and a half square; which pieces are to be finally put into the soup when it is nearly finished. Put the bones back into the broth to boil an hour longer, for the double purpose of extracting all their savor and to effect the reduction of the turtle broth, which is to be used for filling up the turtle stockpot hereafter. In order to save time, while the above is in operation, the turtle stock or consomme should be prepared as follows: With 4 ounces of fresh butter spread the bottom of an 18 gallon stockpot; then place in it 3 pounds of raw ham cut in slices; over these put 40 ounce of leg of beef and knuckles of veal, 4 old hens (after having removed their fillets, which are to be kept for making the quenelles for the soup); to these add all the fleshy pieces of the turtle (excepting those pieces intended for entres), and then place on the top the head and fins of the turtle; moisten the whole with a bottle of Madeira and 4 quarts of good stock, add a pottle of mushrooms, 12 cloves, 4 blades of mace, a handful of parsley roots and a good-sized bouquet of parsley tied up with 2 bay leaves, thyme, green onions and shallots. Set the consomme thus prepared on a brisk stove fired to boil sharply, and when the liquid has become reduced to a glaze fill the stockpot up instantly, and as soon as it boils skim it thoroughly, garnish with the usual complement of vegetables, and remove it to the side of the stove to boil gently for 6 hours. Remember to probe the head and fins after they have been boiled 2 hours, and as soon as they are done drain them on a dish, corer them with a wet napkin well saturated with water to prevent it from sticking to them, and put them away in a cool place with the remainder of the glutinous parts of the turtle already spoken of. The stockpot should now be filled up with the turtle broth reserved for that purpose as directed above. When the turtle stock is done strain it off into an appropriate-sized stockpot, remove every particle of fat from the surface, and then proceed to thicken it with a proportionate quantity of flour to the consistency of thin sauce. Work this exactly in the same manner as practised in brown sauce, in order to extract all the butter and scum, so as to give it a brilliant appearance. One bottle of old Madeira must now be added, together with a puree of herbs of the following kinds, to be made as here directed: Sweet basil must form one-third proportion of the whole quantity of herbs intended to be used; winter savory, marjoram and lemon-thyme in equal quantities, making up the other two-thirds; add to these a double-handful of green shallots and some trimmings of mushrooms; moisten with a quart of broth, and having stewed these herbs for about an hour rub the whole through the tammy into a purse. This purse being added to the soup, a little Cayenne pepper should then be introduced. The pieces of turtle, as well as the fins, which have also been out into small pieces rend the larger bones taken out, should now be allowed to boil in the soup for a quarter of an hour, after which carefully remove the whole of the scum as it rises to the surface. The degree of seasoning must be ascertained that it may be corrected if faulty. To excel in dressing turtle it is necessary to be very accurate in the proportions of the numerous ingredients used for seasoning this soup. Nothing should predominate, the whole should be harmoniously blended. Put the turtle away in four-quart-sized basins, dividing the fat (after it has been scalded and boiled in some of the sauces) in equal quantities into each basin, as also some small quenelles, which are to be made with the fillets of hens reserved for that purpose, and in which, in addition to the usual ingredients in ordinary cases, put 6 yolks of eggs boiled hard. Mould these querelles into small, round balls, to imitate turtles' eggs, roll them with the hand on a marble slab or table, with the aid of a little flour, and poach them in the usual way. When the turtle soup is wanted for use warm it, and just before sending it to table add a small glass of Sherry or Madeira and the juice of one lemon to every four quarts of turtle. The second stock of the turtle consomme should be strained off after it has boiled for two hours, and immediately boiled down into a glaze very quickly and mixed in with the turtle soup previously to putting it away in the basins, or else it should be kept in reserve for the purpose of adding proportionate quantities in each tureen of turtle as it is served.