If only I could be so meticulous with detail!
I only insisted on the barest basics. And C.I.'s overly brief allowance for editing time prevented me from adding a question about the snakes' sizes. It's a social aspect of the Internet that whenever you ask for help in any discussion forum, you should expect to provide whatever information you already have, or assumptions you've already made. Unless you don't mind having your request widely ignored by readers who might have exactly the answer you're seeking.
Yes, they are "chicken snakes," therefore not venomous. Though one could possibly catch salmonella poisoning if bitten, or some other infection.
My practical concern was whether you needed to be particularly fussy about exactly where the snake is beheaded. I'm not completely sure that the venom glands of the
pit-viper[‡] varieties of our U.S. venomous snakes don't extend a little bit down the neck beyond the head itself. Either way, the cited source[†] directs the adventurous cook to clean the snake by slicing it open from the
anal vent to the decapitation point, gutting it, and skinning it. Only then should you begin your culinary experimentation.
Snake meat in the wilds can be likened to eating a roasted bike innertube, unlike the tender snake meat in a fine Texas restaurant that has marinated in wine sauce overnight. [†]
I get the impression that quite a lot of
marinade could be involved, which might make it too expensive to follow the high-falutin' advice never to cook (thus also never to marinate) with
wine that's not good enough to serve in glasses to your house-guests. I wonder whether a much-more frugal but nearly as useful marinade could be obtained from diluting a bottle of
concentrated lemon juice. Or even a gallon jug of "
lemon drink", despite being adulterated with a hefty proportion of high-fructose-corn syrup?
Plus, the sheer amount of bones to sort through in a snake makes for a lengthy meal. [†]
Or maybe instead of being used for a
meal, try it as a snack for reading on the Internet, e.g., catching up on CathInfo? I'm thinking of 1 Chinese preparation for
eels, whose approx. 1-in.-diameter length is cut into 2-in.-long pieces (then stir-fried). Viability might depend on being able to separate snake vertebrae cleanly before cooking--in contrast with Chinese and Caribbean brute-force use of heavy cleavers, which creates nasty sharp
bone-shards that are especially troublesome for distracted eating.
I've never prepped a snake for cooking, and I wonder if, by comparison with filleting thick-bodied fish, a snake has so little meat on the interior of its rib cage that that interior meat could be ignored?
I'd be surprised if there weren't something useful that could be done with the skin: By simple geometry, a snake 2 in. thick has a skin 6 in. wide at that point. As for disposing of the remaining carcass, how about chopping it up, and using it as bait for catfish (or crabs, if you're near salt or brackish water)?
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Note †: Tony Nester: "Is it safe to eat snakes?". <
https://www.outsideonline.com/1769726/it-safe-eat-snakes>, whose logo identifies it as the on-line presence of the well-regarded
Outside magazine. Jun 2, 2010. I don't claim that my brief excerpts above included the most important parts of this article, so please do read this article in its entirety.
Note ‡: I.e.: rattler, copperhead, and cottonmouth (a.k.a. water mocc
asin). Coral snakes are a whole 'nother
genus, with venom that's
way too potent to risk handling for cooking.