We live on a river and with the heavy rains has brought critters up close. I have a 5 foot rattler in the fridge I would like help in cleaning and preparing for cooking. All skinning, prep and recipes appreciated.

Quick cook in a hot smoker and flake off the bone? Just a guess.

Roll in seasoned flour and fry like chicken . Good stuff

This! There's a guy on Youtube goes by "DeepFriedKing" he's awesome and has a video of cleaning and deep frying a rattler. Check it out. It's good stuff..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rjhdxnppsz4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PQ_I_Ust9I

cut it up in large chunks, put on ground close to hog sign, shoot hog

For skinning, cut skin in circle around "neck", and peel skin rearward. In my experience, snakes' skins have unpleasant smell, altho' meat is fine. Do NOT cook with skin on.

wear rubber gloves while skinning ... not much smells worse than rattlesnake, and if you get it on your hands, you can smell it for days even washing with clorox. Each time you take a bite, you get a whiff from your hands, ruins appetite!!!

skinning: we used to cut head off and dispose, then peel the skin off like a sock inside out. Makes a great conversation piece if you turn right side out again, dust with table salt and fill with sand, ziptie/rubber band the neck and throw next to the door at camp ...

gutting: slit down the belly full length, remove and thoroughly wash. cut into 4-6 inch pieces.

cooking: similar to frying fish, coat w ith flour & cornmeal

Ok as of 4:30pm, skinned, gutted, rinsed off and in Kosher salted ice water bath. So next cut into cubes and flour coat, deep fry and eat????

I won't eat anything that has a recipe that starts like this ^^

rattler dont taste like chicken! its eatible, but better off not

Snake was good, more like frog legs. Chicken fried and grill roasted. Like the grill roast best. Will definitely cook again.

By the way.... no smell from skinning snake.

same here

Light the grill,grab a cold frosty one and open the lid of the trash can,insert rattlesnake.Once coals are ready put the pork steaks on and enjoy your day

Starting off soaking it in a brine solution is not a bad idea, but it's really not necessary for Mr. No Shoulders.
Just skin it, rinse really well, and cut into about 1 1/2 " length pieces. We soak ours in milk for a bit , then treat it just like fish.
Coat it with Zatarains or a comparable corn flour based fish fry , drop into 350 deep grease and salt it immediately after it comes out of the fryer. Wash down with cold beer. Good Eatin!

WNPHNTR that sounds good. Rains are comning this weekend and should move more rattlers up the bluff from the river. I did roast part of him with some Tony C's on foil in the grill. yummm

As soon as the squirrels clean off my neighbors pecan trees and head for mine, I will be eating lots of squirrel, was thinking of cooking them the same way as the rattlers....

Rattlesnake is good! The big ones can be a little tough though. If it's a young one, just frying up like chicken is good. Since he he is a big one, parboil in salted water for about 30 minutes before breading and frying.
Rattlesnake chili is pretty good too! I like to serve that alongside smoked brisket when my wife's yankee relatives are in town. I can walk out here in the saltgrass along Christmas Bay with my son's .410 and have one harvested in about 15 minutes.
Skinning them is no big deal. First, cut off the head. Take a pair of scissors and cut up the belly down as far as you can. Peel the top of the skin back a little, grab the skin with a pair of pliers, and peel it inside out. You can fillet a lot of the bones out sorta like you do a fish.

This with tony's...my choice.