Free rabbits off CL > Canning > Belly Flap Jerky

So I have craigslist set to auto send me any new advertisements with the keywords, "Rabbit, rabbits, bunny, bunnies" and I struck gold yesterday. 16 free rabbits around the age of 12 weeks old! (Must take all) Dang it, I didn't check my email until 2 hours after I got it in my inbox, I thought they must be gone by the time I saw the listing. I shoot them an email saying I can come get them right now and surprise! They still have them! Apparently plenty of people have inquired but none had scheduled a time to pick them up or they only wanted 1 or 2. I packed my 2' x 4' cage into the back of the car and off I went!



They were so cute!! And all those spots! The lady had mentioned something about someone giving her an English Spot and he got loose? Not sure, a little fuzzy on the details but they do look like they could be english spot x new zealand crosses, definitely a leaner body and those markings... adorable. I decided I had cage space for 5 of them to grow them a bit before processing (because I wanted thicker, larger pelts) so I picked the prettiest 5 and let them know they had a stay of execution. That orange one... :in_love:





Then I start processing the remaining 11 buns and oh no... spotty livers. BADLY spotted livers. All of them. From a scale of 0-10 (zero being a clear liver and 10 being the worse liver I've seen on google images) these guys were around 6 to 9! There was one that may have been a 10... :shock:

Needless to say they all got processed, the 5 did get a short stay of execution by a few hours but eventually they went the way of the knife. I just don't want to mess with coccidia, I've got enough to deal with without adding THAT to the mix. Poor guys.... But you'll sure taste good!



Now I've got them (including the heads) in the cooler filled with ice, water and salt to brine overnight, I'll probably switch out the water with fresh tomorrow and add more ice. I want to pressure can them, bone in raw pack but I don't think I have time tomorrow so they'll brine for another day. Anyone canned rabbit before? I've never even CANNED before but I have this brand spankin' new pressure canner in a box sitting in my kitchen.... I need to try it out and now I have all these free buns!

Also, I'm making something with the heads if my stomach will let me, lol.

As I started reading this I was like: oh noes, poor crazy, something is definetly up with these buns..... then liver spots, yup called it. They were pretty though and free meat is fine in my book ^^ Glad you decided to process some right away and find out about the issue before it caused any problems!

Ive never canned before but 1 thing I do know is that if the can doesnt "pop" it's not canned properly.

2CrazyFools":1i2erywu said:

Anyone canned rabbit before? I've never even CANNED before but I have this brand spankin' new pressure canner in a box sitting in my kitchen.... I need to try it out and now I have all these free buns!

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Haven't done rabbit yet - but I will be having a really big processing day in about 4 weeks and will do so then. I, too, got a new pressure canner this year. I did my first test last month, and canned fish with it.

Oddly, my canner actually has a SPECIFIC rabbit canning recipe in the manual. If yours didn't come with that, let me know, and I'll pass along the instructions as a starting point.

There is a great group on Facebook called Rebel Canners. No canning police allowed. They can anything and everything if it can be canned. May not help you on these rabbits, But definitely worth the look see.

KimitsuKouseki":2j85xwpi said:

As I started reading this I was like: oh noes, poor crazy, something is definetly up with these buns.....

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My thoughts exactly, lol, I really did think about going through the treatment with the 5 I'd chosen but in the end decided I'd rather not even mess that that can of worms just for some pretty pelts. I briefly thought about using that orange buck with my bottle babies but quickly nixed that idea due to the growth rate and the fact that I didn't want to add english spot to my meat mutts. Pretty buns but the meat to bone ratio isn't to my liking. Lovely, gorgeously lean critters.

KimitsuKouseki":2j85xwpi said:

Ive never canned before but 1 thing I do know is that if the can doesnt "pop" it's not canned properly.

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I've definitely heard people "praising the ping," lol.

Ferra":2j85xwpi said:

Oddly, my canner actually has a SPECIFIC rabbit canning recipe in the manual. If yours didn't come with that, let me know, and I'll pass along the instructions as a starting point.

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Thank you so much Ferra! I'll have to flip through my manual and see what's there, but the national center for home food preservation even has a canning recipe for "Chicken or rabbit" so if I don't have it with my canner I'll probably just follow that recipe. (http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_05/chicken_rabbit.html) Curious though, do you season the bun before canning??

UFCreel":2j85xwpi said:

There is a great group on Facebook called Rebel Canners. No canning police allowed. They can anything and everything if it can be canned. May not help you on these rabbits, But definitely worth the look see.

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I'm actually part of a group called "No canning police (food group)" but I'm hesitant to use any of their advice because there certainly is some unsafe practices being utilized in there, lol. I think my best bet is to stick to 100% recommendation until I'm highly comfortable with canning before I start experimenting with strangers recommendations from those groups. Don't get me wrong, I love being part of those groups, they really are creative! I'll have to see if I cannot find the one your recommended. Thanks UFCreel! ^_^

Oh, and for anyone curious here were the results from live to dress out weights. These guys all have FULL bellies upon bucher, especialy the 5 I decided to keep since I went ahead and gave them pellets with the mindset of fattening them up the next few months. So they are the last 5 on the list and show low percentages. Total AVG was 49% dress out weight, but again, that number was a bit skewed from food.
<br /><br /> __________ Sun Jun 25, 2017 10:30 am __________ <br /><br /> Oh, and I did contact the lady I got them from to let her know she should treat her herd and disinfect the tractors / cages. Least I could do for getting all her bunnies. (The reason they were free is that she was going out of town and the person who was going to process them for her bailed, and she didn't have space for the 16 plus with her mother taking care of the livestock it would be helpful to only have the 4-5 adults to feed and water.)

I can rabbit bone in, raw packed. I run mine at 13# (5,000 feet elevation here) for 80 minutes. I add a teaspoon of dehydrated thyme to the salt and add water leaving ~1 to 1-1/4" head space. Some say you can just pack the meat and run it but I think you get better heat transfer with it in water and it makes a nice rich stock with those bones and thyme in it.

You can pressure longer but never less than 75 minutes per quart. It will be pretty mushy though if you go to long. :chef:

Thanks, now I'm hungry!

Did you include the liver, kidney and heart in the dress out weights?

alforddm":3ilos3e1 said:

Did you include the liver, kidney and heart in the dress out weights?

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If I was her I wouldnt keep any organs on spotty liver rabbits so my guess is no?

Oh I agree not to keep them but they are usually included in dressout percentages so if not included the numbers would be off.

ah makes sense

I never keep organs when I track dress out weights and normally the percent is in the high 50s, for example the last bun I processed (not including these 16) was 56% of live just meat/bones no organs. I've always heard if it's in the high 50s you're good and I would assume I'd be into the 60s if I kept liver, kidneys and heart.

Homer":2m8kskh9 said:

I can rabbit bone in, raw packed. I run mine at 13# (5,000 feet elevation here) for 80 minutes. I add a teaspoon of dehydrated thyme to the salt and add water leaving ~1 to 1-1/4" head space. Some say you can just pack the meat and run it but I think you get better heat transfer with it in water and it makes a nice rich stock with those bones and thyme in it.

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Thank you Maggie! I was thinking I definitely wanted to add some water because I just love my broths.

2CrazyFools":deg74sgk said:

I never keep organs when I track dress out weights and normally the percent is in the high 50s, for example the last bun I processed (not including these 16) was 56% of live just meat/bones no organs. I've always heard if it's in the high 50s you're good and I would assume I'd be into the 60s if I kept liver, kidneys and heart.

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That is pretty good. I always forget to weight mine before I start parting them out. :?

What a deal!

Pity about the spotty livers, but hey, free food is always welcome in our house...

So last night I was wondering what to make for dinner then I realized... DUDE. You have a freezer full of rabbit. So this happened.



I went ahead and I'm canning the rabbit right now!! I'm doing it! I quickly chopped them into legs, backstrap/backbone, ribs/neck, and belly flaps. I stuffed the cans with just legs, or just backstrap/backbone and I was able to do about half of the rabbits in 7 quart jars.

The ribs and neck I was thinking about making some hearty broth/soup with it but then I realized I have SO MUCH STOCK already from a turkey and rabbit I don't need that. Plus, free meat and my dogs eat 50/50 raw.... so they got ribs and neck for dinner! And I didn't have to mess with it, lol.


The belly flaps I'm going to season and marinate in "something" and then cook in the oven for some easy rabbit jerky. Anyone have a favorite recipe? <br /><br /> __________ Mon Jun 26, 2017 10:09 pm __________ <br /><br /> PING!

2CrazyFools":16g6jb47 said:

Homer":16g6jb47 said:

I can rabbit bone in, raw packed. I run mine at 13# (5,000 feet elevation here) for 80 minutes. I add a teaspoon of dehydrated thyme to the salt and add water leaving ~1 to 1-1/4" head space. Some say you can just pack the meat and run it but I think you get better heat transfer with it in water and it makes a nice rich stock with those bones and thyme in it.

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Thank you Maggie! I was thinking I definitely wanted to add some water because I just love my broths.

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Maggie!? Do I look like Maggie to you? humph



You're making me hungry again ya know.
Good job canning it up! :cheesysmile:

looks amasing, ^^ lucky wolf puppy is happy

You canning looks great! I do have one suggestion though be very careful using your ceramic top for canning. I ended up cracking mine just doing water bath and they are pricy to replace.

Homer":dfss55w3 said:

Maggie!? Do I look like Maggie to you? humph

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Hahahaha, oh my goodness, my bad! :lol: No sir, you most certainly don't look like a Maggie, or if you were a Maggie I doubt anyone would give you grief about it!

KimitsuKouseki":dfss55w3 said:

looks amasing, ^^ lucky wolf puppy is happy

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Husky puppy would be more accurate but I'll let it slide She wasn't too keen on it to be honest with you, she's such a peculiar dog.. "Raw meat? Again? .. uhg..." then she just stand there looking at me and I'm like, "Come on! Raw! Yummy yummy in the tummy!" *deadpan stare from Gaea* :| The only food she's excited about is whipped cream, turkey treats, and pistachios. She's such a weirdo, lol. Her face in this picture accurately describes her giving it a shot... like dragging a donkey to the water hole. She acts like this with regular dog food or raw chicken/pork/what have you, lol. "Uhg. Eating food. Such a waste of my time."

alforddm":dfss55w3 said:

You canning looks great! I do have one suggestion though be very careful using your ceramic top for canning. I ended up cracking mine just doing water bath and they are pricy to replace.

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Yes! I agree! I did a good bit of reading about using this pressure cooker on that stove top and what I learned is to be VERY CAREFUL when moving it around. Last thing I want to replace when it looks this good... there's a few stovetops I've used that it wouldn't be a shame if they broke, lol.


Aaaaaaaaand now the rabbit belly flap jerky is in the oven! I'm trying two different recipes. I'm really excited about this... I love jerky and the tougher the better. TIP: Use a good pair of fabric scissors to cut the belly flaps into strips, easy peasy.

Scissors are a staple item in my kitchen and are in almost every dishwasher load! I use them all.the.time for various food prep :lol: Great for cutting up kid food as well, although we're pretty much out of that stage *sniff* I use them for meats, quesadillas, sandwiches, etc.

I wish they had opaque jars for canned meat... it's one of those food items that just is not pretty to me I need to give it a try though, especially with a freezer full of meat that I really don't want to move at the end of the summer...

How does canning rabbit do with old vs. young rabbits? I am trying to rehome my herd (unsuccessfully) before our move and am thinking I should just cull the non-favorites at this point . Some of them are older though, but maybe canning would help?

FourRingCircus":1co7sr93 said:

I wish they had opaque jars for canned meat... it's one of those food items that just is not pretty to me

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I agree, opaque jars would be ideal but it doesn't repulse me as much as my husband, I sent him a picture and he went, "...ew." :lol:

FourRingCircus":1co7sr93 said:

How does canning rabbit do with old vs. young rabbits?

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This I have no idea, seeing as this is my first time canning anything, but I would assume it would work really well. Sort of like crockpotting the old rabbits instead of frying them up like the fryers. Maybe Homer knows?

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:O HOLY CRUD ON A STICK GUYS. Rabbit belly flap jerky is AMAZING. I will no longer look at the flaps with distain or toss them to the dogs.. these puppies are all mine! <3 Also, they aren't very tough, I mean, as tough as you would expect jerky to be but that's all. No tougher than normal!

I tried two different recipes (didn't measure anything though, just eyeballed it and completely omitted the salt) and while both were good, one was better. I added a little cayenne to both recipes.

http://www.hostilehare.com/homemade-oven-rabbit-jerky/ is the jerky on the left, http://allrecipes.com/recipe/142948/doc ... eef-jerky/ is the jerky on the right and the one I like best. I think the key is that Doc's adds the smoke flavor and that really kicks the jerky up a notch. Also I'm low carb so instead of brown sugar I used my Sucralose drops (EZ-Sweetz). Hmm, a dash of molasses would probably be good.
I cooked it at 250F on racks for 2 hours 50 minutes, I had my timer set for 4 hours like the Hostile Hare suggested and I'm glad I checked sooner or they would have been burned little crisps. I probably would have still eaten them to be honest....