The record-union., 1895-08-17
RATTLESNAKE DINNER.
Like the Breast of Tender Spring
Chicken.
The Rather Was Served in a Fillet,
With Plenty of Wine to Wash
1t Comfortably Down.

Clouds of tobacco smoke filled the COR
ner of the little uptown cafe where they
were telling snake stories, and the yarns
that were told were decidedly thrilling.
Of course, they were all true. The South
ern man in the party, Major =, for
some years past successful lawyer in
this city, had been telling of the DEVILS
Swamp, down South, and it's extraordi-
nary number and variety of reptiles.
Suddenly he asked, Did you ever eat
rattlesnake ?''
"Oh, you needn't laugh" he said. "I've
eaten IL. snd it was good, too. This is the
way it came about: At Bay ST. Louis,
the place. you know. whore the pugilists
| have in the last few years trained for
their prize-fgbts in the South. there used
to live an old Frenchmen named Pierrot.
| He came from the country back of
| Lyons, France, where they eat snails,
frogs. and, it seems, snakes as well.
I Pierrot was famous hunter, and, though
| the deer and turkey had been driven
away from the neighborhood, he was the
| most successful hunter of quail, squirrel,
rabbit, woodcock and jacksnipe. with
which the country back of the Bay
abounded.
Il had heard that Perrot was a feeder
| on snakes. and asked him about it. He
admitted that he ate rattlesnake when
ever he could get it, and invited me to
dine with him the next time he secured
| prize.
1T WAS about week after that, in the
middle of June, that old Pierrot in
formed me that he had captured live
rattler. He had pinned the snake down
with a forked stick and extracted its
| fangs by jerking them out with a silk
handkerchief, which the reptile had struck
at. The snake was kept in wooden
| box. and l was taken around TO see it. 1t
was sleek, chubby-looking fellow with
| eight rattleS We were to have the din
ner next day at Burratini's. Ciraccio
Burratini came originally from some
| where near Naples, and was fond of
snakes and snails as old Pierrot was. y
| fourth member of the dinner party was
a Marseilles man named Bayonne, who
| had fed on escargots, sea spiders and
things like that. pretty much all his life.
! He was a good cook besides. SO the
preparation of the dinner was left to him.
"Burratini kept saloon on the line of
| the She'll road, which skirts the Missis-
sippi Sound. with wide galleries running
round the house. giant live-oak tree,
hanging with Spanish moss, kept the
spot in continual shade, and from the
1 y
the odors of acacias, cape jasnines and
oleanders. 1t was in this lovely Anda-
lusian spot, with the sea breezes floating
| in fresh from the Gulf, that we sat on the
seaward veranda to eat our feast
"We had other things besides rattle
snake, of course, but snake was served
at each course after the shrimp and soup.
Shrimp. you know, the small river va
riety, is one of the best appetiZers land
or water furnishes for the delectation Of
an educated palate. Well, We had
shrimp, rich onion soup and then a
court-bouillon of Spanish mackerel.
Don't know what court-bouillon is?
| The fish is sm0thered in sherry with
sauce of finely chopped onions and garlic,
parsley and spice, and it's royal dish. [
tell you. No, it's not boillea- baisse,
but if you don't like highly-spiced food
wouldn't advise you to try it.
after the court-bouilIon there was
| fillet OF rattlesnake. The slices were
first dipped in the beaten yolks of eggs,
thinly sprinkled with finely ground
oornmeal.. and fried in swimming oil.
[ forgot to say that the court -bouillon
was not wholly of Spanish mackerel.
Snake was one OF the components, and
that is how l got my first taste of rat
| tlesnake. l was not told. however, that
snake was mixed with the fish.
There was lot of wine, OF course, a
| good, we'll bodied French claret, and by
the time the tillet of snake was served,
l was pretty well fortified for the gas
tronomic ordeal. 1t looked nice aud
tempting, but 1 could see snakes as
plainly as any old topper did after an un-
fed debauch. a generous wine, though,
! is great alleviation Of that sort of ab-
| horrence, and / tackled the snake.
TASTE? AS we'll as l can remem Der, it
tasted like the fried breast of spring
chicken, and if l hadn't kept my goblet
| filled l don't know how ii would have
tasted. / know that l bolted the morsels
and then instantly washed them down
with wine to keep the thing from wrig-
Cling.
After that we had stewed snake with
mushrooms, with poulente as side dish.
| The poulente was added in Difference to
| Burratini, as most Italians of his class
| think that meal is incomplete without
that most filling but rather vacuous OF
boiled grits. The snake was used up by
this time, and we finished our repast with
| feast of escargots, or rather sea snails.
1.-The snails the oystermen bring up
| with their tOngs from the sounds and
bayous tributary to the gulf are almost as
| palatable as the escargots imported from
the south of France Yes, l saw snakes
the next day, but L attributed the de-
lusion to the wine."-Nsw York World.