Alligator feet

Yes, I know I can google, in fact did that already, but just a quick peruse.
Then I thought, maybe I could get some advice from a fellow Egger.  Afterall, there are a few southerners that might have some experience cooking gator.  I've only experienced eating it at restaurants when on business trips to the great state of Texas.  And, unfortunately, I know I was eating tail, not feet.  I would be more comfortable just going it alone with tail meat.

Carolina Q said:

You might email Jupiter Jim if he doesn't reply here. I think he's the gator expert.

OK, thanks, I've sent him a message.

Jupiter Jim said:

Zmokin just sent a reply to your email.

I've checked my inbox, and I don't see any messages from you.

I bought one of the smaller ones.  It's a single foot, skin on, 0.9 lbs.
It is now thawed in the fridge, so it is imperative that I cook it tomorrow.

OK, I found a video done by kamikaze kitchen.  The video was a waste of 8 minutes as they didn't really show squat about the actual preparation, but then there was a link to the chef's recipe.
Now I'm not going to make the gator corn pancakes that he did, but I did find these 3 lines to be very educational.

1. Put gator feet in a presser cooker and cover with half orange juice and milk
2. Add spices and cook until tender, about one hour (the meat is done when the meat falls out of the skin)
3. Pull out the bones and reserve the meat for later

I think I will forego the OJ & milk & spices and just use water in the pressure cooker.
but use the pre-cook instead of skinning and de-boning while raw. 
then for flavor, saute with butter & Chachere's as I said above.

RRP said:

Zmokin said:

I don't know if I'm not looking in the right place or what, but I can't find Jupiter Jim's reply to my message I sent him.  There is nothing in my "Inbox" except the message I sent him.

My guess is he received the notification of your email and then replied to it and you will NEVER see it! At least that happens when I try to reply. Instead he will need to sign in here and reply to your message, not an email. or you can try to reach him again and explain you didn't receive the response and then give him your direct email address. HTH

Thanks, while it doesn't do much to help at this point, I at least now understand that private messaging on this forum isn't going to be productive.  the pressure cooker is rattling while I type at the moment, so I'm going with the path I've chosen regardless of what Jupiter Jim's advice may have been.  If he wants to re-post his reply here, I would still like to read what he had to say.
Depending upon how my cook turns out, I may be up for trying other methods, although I would prefer to find a local source for tail meat if possible, but my expectations are I would have to special order it.

OK, I doubt I will have a final picture tonight.  There was a lot of gelatinous fat, some meat, lots of skin & bone and cartilage.  I'm guessing the Koreans may make a soup with this, toss it in and boil for a long time, then strain out the solids, discarding them and keeping the liquid, then quickly add vegetables and noodles and serve.  In the separated photo, you can see the little pile of dark meat and the rest of the stuff.  I did the vinegar and water wash, but after reading about that, it was likely unnecessary for me.  I read that is recommended for washing fruit and stuff to cut down on the chances of getting salmonella.  So for the man with the SV at 132, that I can see is a critical step, but an hour at 15 lbs in the pressure cooker, there won't be any salmonella surviving.

In the package



Just out of the pressure cooker



separated into little piles, there still is a fair amount of gelatin still clinging to the skin

I've had alligator tail meat in restaurants a couple of times and I will say that the difference between alligator tail and alligator foot is about 5X the difference between chicken breast meat and chicken thigh meat, but while I think thigh meat is 10X better than breast, I think tail is far more appetizing than foot.