Is that a real gator? Wow!

The grandson of one of the cookbook club girls is on the swim team at W&L. I can’t wait to ask her if her grandson is in the fraternity where Collin is the chef. What a treat those young men are getting!

He has swim team guys.! Great co-incidence ! Yes real gator! but he doesnt do it anymore

Oooo...

I can only imagine what they looked like after cooking 😳

Years from now, those boys are going to tell their grandkids and anyone who will listen about your son's cooking, Trail. He's a legend!

Crazy!

The gators in my neighborhood could use some of those bacon onesies!

Once they get over 7-8 ft people usually call the critter control guy to come trap and remove them.

Usually you see them as fried gator bites when offered on menus, but the smoking makes a lot of sense ... like smoking a whole pig.

😱 I am trying to wrap my head around the whole gator on the table. My husband has eaten gator and enjoyed it. Me? I need convincing.

Thats incredible. Did he come up with that recipe on his own? Perfect for a frat house. Lucky guys.

@njmomma - tastes like frog legs which tastes like slightly fishy chicken.

Fishy chicken, yikes

I knew ”fishy chicken” wasn’t a good description. 😁 From Wikipedia: The taste and texture of frog meat are approximately between chicken and fish.

I think gator meat is somewhere between fish and chicken, which certainly sounds more palatable than ”fishy chicken.”

Oh man - I loved fried frog legs as a kid, but I don't think I'd like them now. I don't recall any fishy flavor, but I was eating in seafood restaurant and it could've been in the air there and I just didn't notice.

Wow!! I can’t imagine seeing a whole gator on the table IRL.

There are pics of the cooked ones. Haven’t looked in a while. He doesn’t do it anymore. Extremely expensive. He had seen other chefs do similar but as usual Collin is an amazing talent.

I’ve eaten fried gator bites and they are not fishy at all … at least the ones I have gad in the Keys and Miami.

When Collin was at the Red Hen years ago he was Top Small Town Chef in the US. https://maplehallinn.wordpress.com/

The full menu included in picture at top. . DS said he did it from 2018-2022. The frats and friends loved it.

WOW! That’s so cool. Slap a couple of those on the table during Rush and you can have your pick of Pledges, I’ll bet!

That's definitely one of the more unique dishes I've come across.

In college, I worked at a restaurant that served aligator bites. I don't recall what they tasted like--they did not leaven an impression on me one way or the other.

@Feathers11 he has done some amazing dishes. Pig ears were fantastic. He’s done a whole hog’s head stuffed. Real

gold leaf on ? I can’t remember. Charcuterie is his real creative love. the laws for food prep of that sort are stringent and his current set up won’t allow it.

He still does some amazing stuff❤️

How many spatchcocked chickens would this be?

The texture of frog legs are like chicken. The taste is more fishy. It is not fishy chicken. It is it’s own taste.

When I was little my parent's country club regularly had frog's legs on the buffet table and I thought they were chicken. My dad always said "Those are frog's legs" and I thought he was making a joke. Same with snapper soup, I thought it was red snapper, I didn't know it was turtle.

Not sure how frog legs ” hopped” in lol! Gator is nothing like frog legs. Also it depends a lot on what kind of frog and how prepared. I’ve had them fixed in a French restaurant in NOLA in the 60’s they were ” skinny with sauce”. Then it was a revelation to have the frog legs at Bart’s…. none of y’all will know what Bart’s was or stood for but trust me you don’t know Louisiana seafood if you never ate at Bart’s. ❤️

I guess I'm not very adventurous with food. I find the images of the 'gators disturbing....

@Indigo Rose not sure what is disturbing. Since the discovery of fire for cooking people have roasted whole animals on a spit. Pigs, goats etc. These alligators are dressed and sent ready to cook just like any other butchered meats.

I am sorry if a person is disturbed by the sight.🙏

I can' t get past the green meat....skinned maybe this would work but eating alligator skin even wrapped in bacon isn't really a thing. No one eats leather so thinking this is a huge miss everywhere but perhaps a drunk fraternity. "Edible parts" is the clue here.

I think they look delicious! The ”skin” is only on the head and feet. The part under the bacon has the skin removed. That is the reason for the bacon, to keep the meat moist.

No different than any other food, just bigger.

ETA: My son smoked a whole hog with the apple in it’s mouth. He sent a photo, but I have no idea where it is.

I've had crocodile but not alligator, courtesy of an Australian friend (he fed us kangaroo on a different occasion). The crocodile definitely did not taste like chicken, and was more reminiscent of seafood.

@arcy_gw as usual you find a way to be wrong AND offensive AND insulting all at once. Congratulations on your long history of posts that set a low standard.