Rattlesnake?

[shogun]

Anybody have prep recipes? How to debone? Lots of different, conflicting methods on the net. I dont want to be picking little bones out of my throat when eating, like fish.

And then, cooking preferences? Pan fry, breaded, shake and bake, soak in buttermilk?

[Hafwit]

Is this intended to be for a serious gourmet meal or what? I don't think that anybody who eats snakes in the US does it because they think it tastes great since there are much better tasting things that are easier to obtain and prepare as well.

Cheers,
Greg

[Black Dog]

I've never eaten any snake, but as far as I know you leave the bones in when cooking. Thats a lot of rib bones to pick out. From what I understand you just cook it off the bone then pick the meat off one bite at a time. I suppose that if you cook it right the bones would soften up and be edible.

[Hafwit]

I would hesitate to eat a wild-caught snake unless you needed to in order to survive. Aside from the risk of the venom from a rattler if you didn't know how to prepare it properly, most if not all wild snakes have parasites, and I wouldn't want to risk ingesting something that I would later regret. This is one of the reasons why herpetologists prefer captive-bred snakes (no parasites) as pets. Eat chicken instead.

Cheers,
Greg

[Yellowkayak]

I love rattlesnake. Use to hunt them in Florida and eat them all the time....taiste like a quality chicken...really. You DON'T debone them...they only have the back bone and ribs. Meat will pull away from back bones and ribs after cooking. Cut snake into two inch chunks after skinning and gutting and cleaning. Soak in salt water over night to get gammy taiste out. Cut into two inch chunks, dry off, then dip in egg, then dip in ANY catfish flour mix.....or just plain FINE corn meal with some Lawrys Season salt added to flour. Deep fry in hot oil--375 degree for about 3 minutes. Serve with onion rings or french fries or even better fried okra. Biggest I ever caught was a 6 1/2 foot canebrake rattler. It was a monster and thick as a coke can. Most I've caught and eaten were in the 4 - 5 foot range. Hard to find a monster like that one anymore, lots of people see snakes and they just kill them out of fear and leave them there to rot or throw them in the trash...what a waiste...good eating.

JJ

[ruffshod67]

Ive caught several over the years while horse back riding.Ive never cooked one while camping. I just came home and cooked it the old-fashioned way -- I gave it to my sister who can instinctively cook anything. We skinned them, gutted them -- they are the easiest, cleanest things in the world to gut. Cut them into corn-cob sized pieces and basted them with garlic butter and broiled it until it looked done. We picked the meat off the bones -- it was tender and came off easily. I always thought it was like a cross between chicken and fish.

[steventexas]

Rattlesnake like Gar are bony but if fried like explained in this thread but at a lower heat for a longer time, about 25 minutes, most of the ribs soften and you only notice the vertebrae. Similar to Salmon.
Cooked on the open fire, the meat is worth picking off. Bite it like a corn cob from the back bone. Good stuff!

Interesting fact about rattlesnake which i know first hand:
The oil between the skin and meat heals burns and severe cuts. I keep a piece in the freezer as burn medicine.

[Airmonger]

http://www.oregonlive.com/easternore...019imnaha.html

No recipes, but...