Meet the BBQ superfan who says his new favourite dish is....an entire alligator.
Erik Svendsen, 42, has started showcasing his cooking skills on his TikTok, where he ordinarily cooks beef, pork and fish.
But he recently turned his hand to cooking alligator - which he calls "the turkey of the swamp" - which costs up to $300 a piece.
The automotive supplies shop owner from Provo, Utah, US, leaves the head and feet on "for presentation", propping open the jaws with a wood block while it's on the grill.
His most recent barbequed alligator cost $200.
It takes about three and a half hours in total. Erik cooks the alligator at 225° for two hours, and then Erik turns it up to 350° for an hour and a half.
Erik Svendsen, 42, has started showcasing his cooking skills on his TikTok, where he ordinarily cooks beef, pork and fish.
But he recently turned his hand to cooking alligator - which he calls "the turkey of the swamp" - which costs up to $300 a piece.
The automotive supplies shop owner from Provo, Utah, US, leaves the head and feet on "for presentation", propping open the jaws with a wood block while it's on the grill.
His most recent barbequed alligator cost $200.
It takes about three and a half hours in total. Erik cooks the alligator at 225° for two hours, and then Erik turns it up to 350° for an hour and a half.
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FunTranscript
00:00The turkey of the swamp, the alligator.
00:06I'm going to start by cleaning this thing off, and then we are going to trim as much
00:10of the fat out of the tail as possible.
00:12Check out those tenderloins on this thing, that is the most delicious part.
00:15We made a brine in a previous video, we're going to let that soak overnight.
00:19Here we are using the Asado rub, and we just patted it dry, and we're going to apply this
00:23everywhere we can.
00:25We're going to tie that tail up, wrapping those tenderloins in.
00:28The jaw is real fun to open, shove a wood block in.
00:30We're using the Meater Duo on this, and we are just going to spray it down with some
00:34apple cider, sauce it with these Swamp Boys barbecue sauce.
00:39Check it out, this thing is incredible.
00:42Look at the meat just falling off the bone, you know, there is a bone in the tail.
00:47And then these are the tenderloins, I let everybody sample them.
00:51Amazingly enough, the alligator was pretty popular.
00:53Here's a tenderloin, chef always gets a bite of his own.
00:57And then we just chopped up the rest of it, and everybody just served it with their Thanksgiving
01:01dinner.
01:02So, the turkey of the swamp, the alligator.
01:04What is up everybody, Sven Diesel here.
01:06We are going to go from this to what arrived.
01:10So I ordered, after seeing Fun Vs. Food and Meater Made Smoking an Alligator, I ordered
01:16one up.
01:17I had it shipped overnight, and then as you can see, I let it unthaw, and then we cleaned
01:21it up.
01:22We brined it for 24 hours.
01:24My experience of cooking alligator is very, very minimal, so I relied upon Malcolm Reed
01:30with his YouTube video that walks you through everything.
01:33I took mostly his brine and his seasoning recommendations, and also how to trim this
01:39up.
01:40And so we are going to cut a lot of the fat out of the tail here, which is going to be
01:44what we eat the most of.
01:45Going to use the seasonings that he recommended for this.
01:49We're going to use our meter to make sure that we get the internal temperature to 165
01:54right there down in the tenderloin.
01:56And we're going to shove another one in the tail, and we're going to throw it on our Timberline
01:59XL.
02:00Check out that alligator.
02:01This was a 12-pound.
02:02I probably could have gone a little bit bigger, but we're going to go ahead, and it's about
02:06150, 155 degrees right now.
02:08We're going to mop it up with some sauce, put it back on, and there it is.
02:12Check out this cooked alligator.
02:15It's my first time.
02:16Turned out awesome.
02:17Put even a chicken leg in its mouth.
02:19We're going to sample the tenderloin here.
02:21We're going to cut it up, and we will give it a taste test.
02:24And of course, like everything, when you follow a recipe, it is excellent.
02:30Some say that the alligator is the turkey of the swamp.
02:33So for Thanksgiving this year, we're going to be cooking up an alligator.
02:37We're going to be making our own brine.
02:38We're going to start with about four cups of sugar, and we're going to put it in a big
02:42pot, which we have about seven quarts of water.
02:46We're using some of this AM Nicoli salt.
02:48We're going to put about three cups in.
02:50I was hoping to have a four-to-four ratio, but three cups is all I had left.
02:54We're going to add some of this Arizona Cajun rub.
02:58This has a little bit of a kick.
02:59I ended up using the whole 12-ounce bottle.
03:02We're going to stir that up and let it simmer and boil for a while.
03:05We already have our alligator prepped, and we're going to throw some ice in and some
03:08freshly cut lemons into a cooler.
03:11And then we're going to pour our brine mixture in, add a little bit extra water so that we
03:14make sure the alligator is completely covered, and then a little tip here, since it floats,
03:19I'm just going to take a bag of ice, rest it on top, that way it's submerged, and we're
03:23going to let this ride for about 12 to 24 hours.
03:26I'm going to do it in 12 because it's the night before, and that's all the time I have.