IMHO snake is best de-boned and served like boneless chicken.
When we lived above the Mojave Desert, the neighbor boys used to like to hunt rattlesnakes. They would bring them to me to skin because, one, I did not mind doing and two, I could get the skin off with the rattles still attached. There is a very simple trick to doing that. ;-)
So, the snakes they brought me would be so fresh, the hearts would still be beating most of the time. I'd skin them, clean them and put them into a ziplock bag in the freezer.
At the end of one summer, we had about 40 timber rattlers in the freezer! Mom pressure cooked them and deboned them, (most of the meat is along the spine) then canned it in 1-2 pint jars.
She used it mostly in salads or in rice dishes. It had a texture similar to chicken but had a slightly fishy flavor. It was quite good.
I'll pbutt on the nopales. You are right, they are slimy. There is a spineless edible needlely pear that grows around here and I'm still experimenting with the young pads trying to find a good way to prepare them.
Cheers! -- Om.
It's time to stop all the Haggis jokesSeveral months ago, a distant relative of mine from Scotland came to spend a few days with us. (No, I wasn't interested in oatcakes then so I didn't get any of her recipes). She...
"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-unpleasant woman." -Jack Nicholson
