I found this recipe on the Internet!! Not sure I would eat a RattleSnake....but to each His Own !!
I once had the pleasure of having some rattlesnake ‘cakes’ as an appetizer to a meal in Austin a year or so at Hudson’s…one of the nicer restaurants there….compliments of good friends and Austin residents John And Sabra Slais.
The attached recipe is similar….but these are straight ’steaks’ here. The ‘cakes’ are like crab cakes…just the pieces of the meat in a patty sort of like a salmon croquette.
So why not smoke ‘fried’ food?
And why not smoke fried rattlesnake?
Here goes…
Controlled Burn Smoked Rattlesnake
- 1 medium-sized rattlesnake (3-4 lbs.), cut into steaks
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/4 cup Aunt Jemima yellow cornmeal
- 1/4 cup cracker crumbs
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1 egg
- 1/4 teaspoon Controlled Burn Rub
- 1 teaspoon salt
- dash white pepper
Mix dry ingredients. Whisk milk into beaten egg and use to dip snake steaks. Then coat them with dry ingredients…just like catfish. Fry, uncovered, in 400 degree oil until brown. Drain on paper towels.
Then IMMEDIATELY smoke them over low heat…..around 200 F for no more than 20 minutes…with a cherry wood or alder if you can get it. Mesquite and hickory might be to harsh. The smoke will be very quickly absorbed into the already cooked snake steaks.
I must confess I’ve never tried this recipe…as far as the smoking part goes. But I know my woods. I know smoke.
So this is the first recipe that I’ve offered up that I actually haven’t tried. How ’bout that? But there’s no question that it’ll work. Rattlesnake tastes somewhat like chicken, as some of you know.. But the flesh of the snake is not a lot different than fish. It fries up the same way as fish. And I know that it’ll take the smoke the same way too.
