Snakes are a fairly common and usually unprotected species in many parts of the world. In addition to having an important role in the animal world, they also have delicious meat and often very beautiful skins to look at. The following steps will teach you how to skin, gut and prepare snakes for cooking. Even if the snakes you will find yourself handling are not rattlesnakes, used as an example in this article, the instructions still apply, with the exception of those regarding the rattle.
Steps
Step 1. Remove the head, unless your purpose is to embalm it
For embalming, much more complicated skinning techniques are needed, but this article will not talk about. It is always better to work with headless snakes, because even "dead" snakes have sometimes managed to attack someone, and the teeth are still dangerous. By removing the head, you will remove all the poison.
Step 2. Wash the outside of the snake thoroughly
Soap and water, or even just water, will do just fine. Just make sure you rinse all the soap off.
Step 3. Make an incision in the center of the belly, cutting only the skin from where the head was attached to the end of the rattle
In most snakes, there is a smaller scale covering the cloaca. In the figure, this is the cream-colored area immediately before the darker scales that cover the tail. Just divide it in two like all other scales.
Step 4. Pull the skin off the flesh with your hands, starting with the head, pulling evenly to avoid tearing the skin
Make sure you separate the skin from the membrane underneath where the head was and where you will start pulling. The goal is to get the skin with nothing else attached. It should detach fairly easily from the snake's carcass. If it is a little "tight" in some places, being very careful, you can use a knife to free it. You can still be able to skin the entire snake by hand, all the way to the cloaca.
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Once you get to the cloaca, it is usually necessary to free it from the skin by cutting around the opening with a knife. Continue skinning the snake to the base of the rattle. The tendons of the muscles that control the rattle typically make the skin rather difficult to pull off. If in that area the skin offers too much resistance, you will have to use a knife because, due to its high delicacy in that area, pulling too much would risk damaging it.
Skin a Snake Step 4Bullet1 -
When the skin has been separated from everything but the rattle, cut the tail crosswise as close to the rattle as possible. If you want to preserve skin with the rattle attached, you may want to leave as little meat attached to it as possible.
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Don't worry too much about removing all the meat in the area between the cloaca and the rattle (the black and white striped area in rattlesnakes). It is almost impossible to completely separate the skin from the flesh in that area. It will dry out quickly.
Skin a Snake Step 4Bullet3 - Constricting snakes, such as the bull snake, cannot be skinned. Their skin, in fact, is connected through a dense network of muscles to the body. Cutting them is quite complicated, just as it is difficult to free the skin from the meat. Conversely, unintentionally damaging the skin by cutting or tearing it is pretty easy.
Step 5. Remove the bowels by hand, starting with the part where the head was attached and holding the spoon hand, if the internal organs prove difficult to remove
You have to pay attention to the lower part of the digestive system, or the snake may excrete unwanted substances on the meat.
Step 6. Rinse the snake now free of guts and skin in cold water to remove excess blood or other unwanted substances
The membrane and fat are often very difficult to separate from the rib cage and spine, but this time you can cut them off.
Step 7. Cut the snake into several pieces of the length that best suits the way you plan to cook it
Advice
- When dealing with a fresh (not previously frozen) snake, it is best to wait an hour or two after killing it before skinning it. It is amazing how much a dead snake can move, and the movements would prevent you from making a straight incision.
- Some prefer to soak the snake prices in salt water, after preparing them for cooking, in order to get rid of any residual blood or that "wild" taste from the meat.
- Snakes can be frozen without problems; the flesh would not be damaged, nor would the skin be damaged.
- When cutting a snake into pieces, try to make the cuts parallel to the ribs to avoid cutting them. If you are serving meat containing rib fragments, they may be difficult to remove once the meat is cooked.
- Snake meat sits between chicken and fish in texture and flavor, and could be mistaken for both.
- A simpler method of skinning a snake is to remove the head and peel off the skin as you would a sock, starting from the top. Treat it with borax, spreading it over the skin for about a week. At that point you can sew it or glue it to a hat or belt. The advantage of this method is that you will not risk affecting the bowels, you will not damage the scales and the skin will look better when you use it.
- If the snake has bitten itself, or if it has been bitten by another poisonous snake, cooking it should eliminate all venom. Nonetheless, if you see any bite marks, proceed with caution.
Warnings
- Reptiles are carriers of salmonella. Make sure you wash your hands after handling them.
- Obey all local laws regarding the capture of wild snakes.
- Be careful when handling snakes, especially if they are poisonous specimens. If you are bitten by a snake, seek immediate medical attention, especially if it is a poisonous specimen.
- When handling a snake, don't even show it to your closest friends, if they are animal lovers! And don't follow this guide if you are an animal lover too!
- Be careful with the knife!
