BBQ Rabbit

[miss_thenorth]

Well, personally, I find rabbit a bit easier to process than chicken, only if you are plucking your chicken. If you are skinning your chicken, they are comparable. Killing for me is more difficult, but I enlist the help of my son. Maybe it is just the way I dispatch them. I grab around the head, and by the back feet, and pull--totally disconnecting the spinal column. Instant death=no suffering. I am not physically strong enough to do 7-10 in a row, so ds helps. After that, you just, skin, gut and cut up into pieces.

The rabbits I raise are-Californian buck, one californian doe, and two, 1/4 flemish giant, 3/4 New Zealand, does. Flemish Giant, while huge, are not considered good for meat as their bones are bigger, and their grow out time is longer. That is why I only have 1/4 FG in them.

You could use wild game for any rabbit recipe, as long as you keep in mind that if they are wild, you don't know the age, and older meat needs longer cook times, and usually braising, etc, b/c it is tougher.

 

[big brown horse]

That sounds easy enough. I hear that BYH might be adding a rabbit section and are asking for input. Bee reminded them to add a "meat rabbit" section.

Honestly I have never even tried rabbit before...not against it at all, just never tried it.

 

[Beekissed]

Out of all the animals I've killed, I find rabbits the hardest. I can't really say why, because I've never really gotten sentimental over one. I think its all that sweet, clean fur and the whole stuffed animal look of them.

Plus, if you don't get a clean kill they scream and it's not a good sound to hear.

The meat is good, though!

 

[kenman]

I agree Bee, the squeal can be disconcerting. I also agree that processing rabbit is comparable to skinning chicken. The two ways that I skin are as follows: after I dispatch them, either by pulling the head and feet, breaking the spinal cord or by the wooden stick method, I decapitate, bleed it out, and either make a slit in the skin on the back, insert fingers from both hands and pull the skin in both directions. This method basically undresses the rabbit from the middle. The other method is to hang them from a back leg, make a cut up the back leg and began the skinning process. The method I use depends on the size of the rabbit and wether I'm doing something with the hide.
I also have larger breeds. I use a New Zealand buck and cross bred does (mutts). If your just starting out, I would recommend two does and a buck. It is easy to get too many does in a hurry. It got to a point last year that I had eight producing does and was processing 15-20 every month. That was with selling my whites to a neighbor who sells commercially. My freezer filled up, overflow started going to other peoples freezers.
We have come to the point that we eat rabbit as much as chicken, maybe more. We love it (esp. BBQ ed).

 

[MorelCabin]

Rabbit...I just had enough rabbit to fill my freezer for the winter...30 babies...and guess what...I won't be able to kill them...like Bee said, they have this look to them that just makes me not able. Everytime I looked at those little furballs I thought of my grand daughter...big sweet innocent eyes and so trusting...nope...no way...can't bring myself to kill them.
The other day I decided to feed one to the dog...she was not a good mother and I fostered out her babies. Needed to make room in the shed. Anyway, the crying was horrible! Never again! So yesterday I gave the whole lot of them away.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Sorry you had a rough go of it, Morel. I dispatch the way I do so there is no crying. I guess I put myself into certain mindset when the time comes, (which, btw, is today--I have 9 to do today). the fact that I am feeding my family wholesome food, and we all enjoy it, makes it all that much easier.

 

[MorelCabin]

Oh I know... I walked into the shed with an axe, was going to give one a quick wack behind the ears with the blunt end...but just couldn't bring myself to do it:>) The dog was much worse I dare say:>) My son finally went out and finished it off with his hatchet, the dog just wanted to maul it.
My son will do what has to be done, but he won't kill something alive and healthy just for food:>) LOL! On top of that he is deadly allergic to rabbits so he had a hard time breathing all evening after coming into contact with the one he had to put out of it's obvious misery

 

[Mackay]

I could no more eat a rabbit than I could eat my cat.

 

[MorelCabin]

Oh, I could eat it, if only we had a good processor around here:>)

 

[miss_thenorth]

Well, we are eating one tonight! I think I'll do the BBQ way. DS helped me with the dispatching, and then he did 3 himself--with help from me. I did 6 to his three, but he will get better. I was proud of hin for his effort, and his third one didn't look half bad (the first one was mangled, but we were pleased with his effort)

Well, off to start the BBQ rabbit!