How to skin an alligator

PDF | Print | E-mail

Sunday, 29 August 2010 14:39

It's black as pitch as you motor quietly across the still surface of the lake.  Your spotlights scans ahead for the telltale signs of an alligator's eye reflecting in the light.  You poise for the strike, or draw back your bowstring.  The contest is just beginning...

Alligator hunting, a fun and challenging outdoor experience, offers recreational hunters a chance to pursue a game animal which, thanks to conservation efforts and management, is again at hunt able populations.  Moreover, as the population of alligators grows or remains stable, and natural alligator habitat is brought ever closer to an expanding human population, recreational alligator hunting provides one way to help manage the stock of alligators in the state of Florida.

 If you're lucky enough to draw a permit and harvest an alligator, you'll be in for a challenge, but one well worth the effort:

It's no secret to outdoors men than caring for and processing your catch or kill can be a real endeavor, whether it's filleting a redfish or skinning a hog.  But for many people, processing an alligator may be a new experience.  And whether you're facing your first successfully harvested alligator, or you already have several under your gator-skin belt, there are several steps you should follow in order to glean the best results for your trophy's hide and meat.

Let's take a look at the tools and methods you'll want to employ to make the rewarding labor of processing the tough hide and delicious meat of your alligator much less challenging:a

1. Bleach
2. Dish Soap
3. Scrub brush
4. Spoon or scraper to flesh the hide
5. Skinning knife, or knives you are most comfortable using to remove hides and meat from game and fish.  A sharp, strong knife is imperative to safely produce a quality hide.

 

Preparation

 

• Shortly after you've harvested the alligator be sure to bleed it.  You can accomplish this by severing the spine at the base of the skull and severing the two arteries that run into the base of the skull along each side of the spinal column.
• Avoid keeping the gator in direct sunlight or near chemicals, such as gasoline in your boat's fuel tank.

Chill your gator

• To begin processing the gator, you'll fiirst want to spray the gator with bleach, let sit for 2-5 minutes, then rinse with water.
• As quickly as possible, place the gator in a cooler.  A refrigeration unit may be the best choice, but a well iced cooler (or coolers) will suffice, also.  You want to achieve a temperature of about 36° F; avoid freezing the alligator by keeping the temperature above 32°F.
• Leave the alligator in the cooler or on the ice for 24 hours.

Clean your gator

• The next day, remove the gator from the cooler.
• Using the scrub brush, scrub the alligator with a mixture of soapy water and bleach to remove algae and any bacteria that was left behind after the first bleaching process.
• Rinse thoroughly with water
  
  

Outlining your gator

• Put gator up on table, belly down, and begin making your outline cut with short bladed knife.  Accomplish this by running your knife along the top of each leg, from the foot to the second row of scutes (the raised scales on the gator's back) on each side, and then lengthwise from the neck to the start of the tail, just bellyside of the scutes.  Leaving the first row of scutes intact helps the tanner when tanning the gator's hide.(See figure A above)
• Next finish your outline cut by following your cut line along top edge of tail.  When your cut approaches the tip of the tail, be sure to leave the last 6 to 8 inches of tail fins intact. (See figure B below)

Back panel removal

• Next you will remove the back panel, or the bony portion of the gator's back hide.  Do this by cutting across the alligator width-wise, essentially cutting across both the head and tail ends of your outline cuts.  IMPORTANT:  Use an upward stroke with your knife when removing the back panel; failure to do so may result in damaging the meat.
• The hide of the back panel has no value, so unless you wish to keep the bony scutes as a memento of your hunt, feel free to discard it at this point.
• The intact end of the tail must be split in half laterally in order to remove the tail bone.

Skinning your gator

• You are now ready to skin the gator.  With the gator still belly down,  use your knife to carefully remove the skin from the body.
• When skinning the legs, leave some skin attached to the ankle and foot area.  This will come in handy later in the process.
• Once the hide is worked down evenly on both sides flip gator on its back.
• Continue carefully use your knife to skin the gator, separating the hide from the body.  Pay extra attention when working around the ribs and anus, as it is easy to slip up and cut the hide in these areas.  You'll also want to be especially careful when skinning the underside of the legs and the armpits, as it is easy to damage the hide.  Use the skin you left on the ankles as grip; this will help you manage the legs and armpits.
• The hide should now be completely removed from the body
• You now must removed any remaining meat or flesh from the hide.  To accomplish this, carefully scrape the meat off of the hide using your spoon or scraper.  You can also pressure wash remaining flesh from the hide using a pressure washer, but proceed with caution, as it can be easy to damage the hide.

Salt and roll the hide

• The next step is to salt your cleaned hide using an ample amount of non-iodized salt spread around the inside (body side) of hide.
• To provide for easier storage, you'll want to fold and role the hide.  First fold in the legs and neck skin, then tightly roll the hide from head to tail.
• Store the hide at about 36° F, careful not to freeze the hide.

Meat acquisition

• Getting back to the carcass of the gator, it's now time to remove the delicious meat.
• All meaty portions of the gator are well worth harvesting.  This includes the tail, tenderloins, legs, portions around the ribs and jowls. As with any game, be careful not to pierce any of the guts, as fluids can leak and badly damage the meat.
•  An especially delicious cut of meat is the tenderloin.  This is located just posterior of the hind legs, on the underside of the tail.
•  Rinse the meat with fresh water, and keep cool.  Gator meat is best enjoyed fresh, but does freeze well for enjoyment at a later date.  It is tasty fried, grilled or roasted.  Gator nuggets and fire-roasted gated tail on a stick are two old Florida favorites.
•  Admiring your cleanly skinned hide and tasting a delicious meal of fresh gator meat will not only bring a rewarding ending to a successful hunt, but leave you with the satisfaction of a job well done.

Please read below!

We hope you found this guide helpful. This information was originally shared in our community forums. This type of information is shared on a daily basis.
Only registered members have access to our fishing and hunting forums, so make sure you become a member today!