We used to marinate with a sauce like you would pork, and cook it on the grill. If you freeze them a few months, like any other meat, they tenderize. I never noticed any turpentine flavor, but i guess it could depend on what they have been eating. I normally get them out of hardwood trees in the fall (Probably the ones I see with theleaves off).
They arent too tough to skin. slit up the quilless belly, pull the skin back around the legs from inside.