rabbit meat?

pinkfox

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cooking method will also depend on age, under 12-16 weeks and youve got a great "fryer" just like frying up chicken...ive personally never done fryer rabbit because my grandmother always raised her meat rabbits for fur too so she wouldnt butcher untill 6 months so shed get the best pelt.
by 6 months MOST breeds are stew, crockpot or sausage meat but her rabbits (standard rex) were still tender enough to be baked/rotiseried at that stage too. (rotisery/spit cooked rabbit is delicious!)

most people who DONT like rabbit meat after tasting it have only eaten wild rabbit which is usually already older and can be tough and gamey by that age... (or they cant get over the whole "fluffy bunny" thing.
young butcherd bunny is a nice dense white meat that seasons well and can be cooked much like chicken (infact almost exactly like chicken but even better for you.)
Rabbit meat is considered the HEALTHIEST meat you can eat, high protein and VERY low fat!

some things to remember when raising rabbits for meat.
1: avoid the "GIANT" breeds (flemish giant, checkered giant ect) because despite being huge they do NOT make good meat breeds, they are mostly bone.
2: unless your also hoping to show there is NOTHING wrong with meat mutts (mixed breeds)
3: theres lots of pure breeds that are less popular in meat rabbits now since the devlopment of californians and newzealands as commerical breeds, that are just as nice...so dont be afraid to go with something "different" my standard rexes grow about 2 weeks slower than calis or newzelands, BUT there still perfectly great meat/fur breed and i get the bonus of amazing temprments and seriously amazing pelts if i wait on them.
breedslike the amercian chinchilla ect are listed as critical/endangerd ect and make perfectly GREAT meat rabbits while sitll being abel to sell some of the kits at a deacent enough price to buy a few bags of feed and bales of hay for them.
 

the funny farm6

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i add pork fat. you can get it at the store or if they dont carry it ask if they can order it. we have also used cheap sausage. 3lbs rabbit and 1lb sausage or so. depends on how fatty/lean you like your sausage. and i like lots of sage. we get sausage making spices at the farm store. if i can get the girls back on track we are going to get the brat spices and casings and make rabbit brats.
 

the funny farm6

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i dont do the "giant" breeds for anither reason... they are so big that you have to reinforce the cages or build speicial cages for them. and they eat MUCH more than a st. rex, nz, or cali.

most of my herd are new zeland mixes. i like spots. and with "pretty" rabbits i can sell babies if i dont want to butcher them.
 

DeniseCharleson

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pinkfox said:
Rabbit meat is considered the HEALTHIEST meat you can eat, high protein and VERY low fat!
Just to quantify that, compared to chicken:
Per 100 gms of meat (composite of cuts, roasted):
KCALORIES: Rabbit 197, Chicken 239
PROTEIN: Rabbit 29gm, Chicken 27gm
FAT: Rabbit 8.1 gm (2.4 gm sat fat), Chicken 13.6 gm (3.8 gm sat fat).
 

Cindlady2

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:barnie I have wanted some butchered rabbits for over a year but can't find any locally... guess I have to look harder! I relly want a good fried rabbit now! :drool
 
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