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Post by Charles Parker on Jul 30, 2009 11:30:19 GMT -5
I would like to know what to ask the butcher/alligator hunter for when I want the cream of the crop - best part - of the alligator to cook and eat. In other words, is there a specific region of the tail or something where the best meat is? Is there a certain age? What I am looking for is the --- deluxe part, what you call it and what I need to tell the guy I am looking for. Other than to go into this long explanation every time and have the reseller go um "yeah our meat is top quality" I want to fry it and not have it be all chewy like a bubble gum. I ate some a friend fried from Tennessee and was blown away. I figured maybe some of you guys would know what the heck he did, was it the cook or the meat this guy claimed it was the meat and not necessarily the cook - and he cooked it! ;D
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Post by clintperkins on Jul 30, 2009 16:55:50 GMT -5
Most of the time when you purchase gator meat in stores, u are getting a raw deal. Its Nasty stuff that comes from the processing plants and you rarely know what part of the gator your getting. I guess the exception to this would be a local butcher, buying and selling everything locally, but i dont know any of these. All tail meat grades out to GRADE A. It really shouldn't be chewy when you cook it, if its tail meat, although you can mess it up during cooking and make it chewey.
Its doubtful that you will find this, but the creme de la creme is the tail loin. Ask for that preferably from a gator in the 6.5 to 7.5 foot range. Make sure to trim all fat off(virtually none on the loin).
This should get you heading in the right direction.
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Post by Charles Parker on Jul 31, 2009 0:58:41 GMT -5
Thanks Clint, I dunno why but something about tail loin is ringing a bell, are there any alligator hunters selling meat in New Orleans that you guys know of?
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Post by clintperkins on Jul 31, 2009 1:46:38 GMT -5
Charles, In a normal year, this time a year the only fresh gator meat comes from nuisance hunters and farms. This year with the gator hide market being non-existant, the farmers are not processing gators and the nuisance hunters are not catching anything to speak of. I do not personally know of any N.O. hunters because i am from alexandria. When the regular season starts in september, there should be an increase in gators, but it will be a down year so don't look for to much.
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Post by Tony Howard on Aug 9, 2009 20:58:33 GMT -5
Clint do you have a video on how to skin gators? If so could you put it in the How Too department?
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Post by okiekajun on Aug 10, 2009 11:13:29 GMT -5
Charles a few years ago some yankee's from trapperman.com hounded me into sending them some gator meat. I got it in September from a local seafood shed where the gators literally went from the boat to the freezer right there at that location. After making a deal to get some fresh meat the owner told me when to come by and check out the show. I stopped in and saw it from start to finish and it was impressive. These guys used an air compressor and strategic cuts to "loosen" the hide. They then skinned them quickly and cleanly. They followed up with a pressure wash fleshing and the hide was rolled and put in the cooler. The meat gathering was secondary to the hide and they really didn't seem interested in wasting much time with it. They pulled meat from the tail. Basically just two long "loins" and then got the "jaw" meat. The owner said the "jaw" meat was the cats meow. I wasn't too convinced, it looked stringy and darker colored than the tail meat. I bought some of both to mail up north and then bought some of both for myself. I gotta say the guy knew what he was talking about, I tried several different ways of cooking and found the tail was best in a slow cooked dish--sauce piqu'ant--the jaw was best battered and fried, as it was very tender and had a great flavor.
One tip- whatever the meat-- I had best results by rinsing in a colander under cold running water for about half an hour followed by an overnight refrigerator soak in milk.
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Post by Charles Parker on Aug 25, 2009 10:28:35 GMT -5
Sounds like good advice thanks for the tips!
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