It’s big, green, scary and, apparently, very tasty.
Alligator meat has become a popular seafood in South Carolina, with South Carolinians snapping up the chewy, pork-like meat almost as fast as stores can put it in their freezers.
Gator meat, which comes almost exclusively from the tail, is typically a by-product of processing. Gators as a product are wanted more for their leathery hide, usually to make clothing and shoes, according to Mark Kelly, a sales representative at Inland Seafood, a distributor in Atlanta, and the largest distributor in the Southeast.
Lucius Moultrie, owner of Palmetto Seafood Co. in Columbia, said he started selling gator around 2009 in 1- and 5-pound packages. In the week before the University of South Carolina Gamecocks played the University of Florida Gators that year, Moultrie advertised the meat with the slogan “eat gators, beat Gators,” and his family business had to scramble to keep up with demand. Moultrie said some of his customers have made it a tradition to eat gator meat before and during USC/UF games.
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