A number of different turtles are eaten just here in the USA and the flavors are quite different. When I was a kid some 50 years ago in Miami, a neighbor who lived on the fresh water canal used to stew big softshell turtles he caught. And the ones we ate in the Keys were green sea turtles. Good, although the meat was somewhat disconcertingly green. These are an endangered species now. In NOLA I helped locals catch and cook alligator snapping turtles the size of wash tubs. I’ve eaten all of these. In other parts of the south they cook “cooters”, medium sized hard shelled fresh water turtles. And in some coastal states the regional preference is for terrapin, a smallish salt marsh turtle. And of course there are common snapping turtles mentioned already in this thread. Regional recipes must vary, as do the actual animals available. I’m willing to try the ones I’ve missed!
River Hippie: I’d be willing to kill my own turtles for a spoonful of delicious, delicious soup. Painlessly. How does an overdose of barbituates sound? Just a gentle…drift…off to sleep…before hitting the pot.
Damn. I wouldn’t mind going that way myself.
I would like to go into a gumbo, if that’s what everyone has a taste for tonight. Grind me into sausage meat and put me in to stew with a nice young chicken.