Terrapin

While the terrapin is a reptile, cookbooks traditionally categorize it as seafood. Like its seagoing relatives, the freshwater or brackish-water turtle, particularly the diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin) and its eggs, have long been esteemed as food. Terrapin is found in salt marshes and in waters along the East Coast from Massachusetts to the Gulf of Mexico. In 1918Fannie Farmer’s Boston Cooking-School Cook Book specifically mentioned that the terrapin of the Chesapeake Bay is the best, fetching the highest prices, but that terrapin from Florida and Texas was what northeasterners could expect to find in the market from November to April. Female terrapins are larger than males and average six to nine inches long. The meat of females is generally considered more tender and thus better for cooking.