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About Keith Patton
Expertise
I can answer questions regarding wildgame cookery ranging from venison, elk, buffalo, wild geese, duck, wild turtle, feral hog, javalena, wild boar, racoon, beaver, and woodchuck.

Experience
I am an avid hunter and chef. I have run a successful catering business, processing my own meat, curing hams and making wild game sausage.

You are here: Experts > Food/Drink > Home Cooking > Cooking Meat > Alligator Meat Cooking

Cooking Meat - Alligator Meat Cooking

Expert: Keith Patton - 10/23/2009

Question
1st=I have some wild alligator meat and would like to know of any preparation tips prior to cooking (ie.marinading, etc.) the meat that would be helpful to the tenderness/flavor of the meat?

2nd=I was also wondering if there would be a "wild gamey" taste to the meat and if so what could I do prior to preparation that would get rid-of or minimize this gamey taste? Also, any additional prep. tips regarding Wild Alligator cooking you can assist with would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance... Henry

Answer
Henry:

Good questions. I know that the meat of some animals, like catfish, ducks and I am sure there are others take on a trace of flavor from the habitat in which they live. I have had puddle ducks from the central flyway, gadwals and spoon bills that were pretty muddy tasting. Others tell me that some ducks from the pacific and eastern flyways can taste fishy due to the content of their diet. Some catfish can taste a bit "wilder" than their farm raised cousins.

My experience with gator meat is pretty much limited to what you get at the store or restaurant.
Having said that, yes you can minimize the taste imparted by the habitat.

Any kind of soaking whether it is marinading or brining is really just a membrane reaction. Nature hates inequality. It trys to reduce highs and raise up lows whether speaking of topography or concentrations of solutions. When you put meat into a solution of higher concentration, it tries to equalize the two differing concentrations. We learned this in chemistry class using salt solutions, remember?

The membrane in this case are in the meat's cells. When meat is put in a solution, it can be anything, it will pull some of what it does not have into the meat, and give up part of what the solution does not have up to the solution all in an attempt to equalize.

When it does this it can dilute off flavors by pulling in water and flavor from the marinade and giving up some of the off flavors out to the marianade.

A word about marinade. Marinades are flavoring, period. They do that by way of what I have just explained. They do little if any tenderizing. Certain things added to marinades can start to digest the protein and break it down but only to the outer surface. Papain found in pineapple juice is a powerful digestive marinade, but it will only turn the outer 1/8 inch to a gray pulp and not much else. Powdered tenderizers only start to work when the meat is heated so putting them on early, does absolutely nothing. Acidic marinades are things like wine, vinegar, beer, and butter milk (butter milk is cultured milk, like yoghurt, and is the biproduct of the manufacture of butter. The tanginess is just like unflavored yoghurt and the chunks are clabber, not butter as I thought as a child when watching my Dad drink the stuff.) All they do is work on breaking down the protein fibers too and as you can imagine take a long time and what you end up with is mush. But they can help mask off flavors by the process I first described. Fish is an exception. Cebiche or marinaded fish is a dish marinaded in lime juice, that acts on the delicate fish meat just like heat. Orange roughy is turned white and flaky just like you might have cooked it by the high acidity of the lime juice. Red meat is a different problem all together.

The only true tenderizer is mechanical break down of the tough meat fibers. Either cut them like swiss steak, or bash them into submission with a good hefty meat mallet.

I love my meat mallet. I can reduce a tough cut of meat into a fork cutting tender cutlet with just a few swift blows to each side. The teeth of the mallet rend and tear the fibers into delicious tenderness.

Once you have beaten the meat into pliant submission, then try soaking it in either buttermilk or plain milk. This will pull some of the wild taste out and impart a rather bland milky taste.
If your taste runs to the other end of the spectrum mix up a marinade of spices, hot sauce and some beer or wine and soak the meat in that over night. By beating the meat you have opened the cells up to your flavorings in your soak so the whole process is speaded up.

This approach is taken in the carribean for Conch, the big citter from those humongous sea shells you see at the tourist shops. The meat is pretty tough so they pound it into cutlets or cut it into stips like clam. I like the pounded version as it is much more tender.

As with turtle, the gator I understand has different meat located in different parts of the animal, the neck, legs, belly and last, the tail. I understand, that just like the Beaver, the best meat is in the tail. You should be able to let the meat be a guide to how it needs to be treated by the fat content. Some turtle meat is like the dark meat on a turkey, really fat rich, while other parts are leaner. The leaner cuts are the ones that will need the pounding. I imagee the leg meat on the gator would need some mallet work too.

I hope all this helps out.

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