Turtle is the meat of freshwater turtles and terrapins — most famously the common snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina) and the diamondback terrapin — long used in American, Chinese and Southeast Asian cooking. Once the luxury base of Victorian and Gilded-Age turtle soup, it is a lean, dark, gamey meat prized in Cajun sauce piquante and Cantonese and Vietnamese stews, where its several muscle types are said to carry the flavours of pork, chicken, beef, fish and even veal.