taste differenence

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gardenbunny

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i was reading a thread about how fryers are better because the hormones haven't kicked in to make it taste different and i realized my husband and i have only ever eaten mature females (i had a slow start to breeding and eat females that wouldn't produce properly)
i am told the meat is a litter tougher in older rabbit which i like( i always over cook my meat) but i guess i should try a small one and see if i like it better also i have never eaten a male do they get a stronger taste when their balls drop
they are 9 weeks now rex/cali/nzw this is our first slaughter of babies i raised
 
Ugh :(

I hate processing older males.

Their hides are harder to remove and they do have a more pungent odour but I have only found this to start in bucks over 12 weeks but most of them that over 16 so you shouldn't notice in your 9 week olds.
 
Some notice a difference, some don't. The oldest males we've eaten were 22 weeks, and we didn't notice a difference, to be honest. :shrug:
 
I like to brine all older rabbits in salt water brine [in the frig]for a week, then freeze , can, or cook [1 cup rock salt to one gallon of water, ] it makes older bucks and does tender, and removes any "off flavors" the bucks may have.
 
thank you everyone!! what age does everyone dispatch? i keep reading when they reach at least 5 lbs, i wanted to do it yesterday but they were only 3 lbs( i thought they'd be 5 by now but looks are deceiving)
 
I process at about 4 pounds so I can have 2 1/4- 2 1/2 pound carcasses. In my herd that's about 9 weeks or so.
 
I've been averaging 5 lbs by 9 -10 weeks this year.

On certain litters, if kits just don't seem to grow, I'll butcher at 4 pounds.

I know none of those non-growing kits are going to be worth saving as brood stock, and I'd rather clear them out, along with the doe who produced them. The exceptions being when I can find a specific and correctable reason why they aren't making weight, or the doe has very a good history of producing good growers and only messed up this one litter.

Where I CAN find something wrong that causes poor growth, it's usually a feed issue.
 
Zass":1e13dd7x said:
I've been averaging 5 lbs by 9 -10 weeks this year.

On certain litters, if kits just don't seem to grow, I'll butcher at 4 pounds.



Where I CAN find something wrong that causes poor growth, it's usually a feed issue.
Click to expand...

I also butcher at lesser weights , if the kits are slower growing they get processed with the rest , - I butcher the entire litter at one time, slower growing rabbits will just have more feed cost, [ $/lb ] so I do not keep them and grow them more. when the litter average is over 5 lb, I process all of them. Since I do not sell any rabbits these days and use them all myself, it is no big deal to have larger and smaller portions on the plate, or in the jar.
When feeding pellets I can usually have 5 lb rabbits at 8 to 9 weeks, but when feeding weeds and scraps it is usually at least a week longer to get 5 + lb rabbits.
 
Never noticed a taste difference between does & bucks or older vs. younger buns , only difference I've noticed is bucks are a bit harder to skin and older rabbits a bit tougher.

Depending upon how I intend to prepare them , I've soaked them in a brine solution for 24-48 hours , especially larger / older rabbits. This does help with the toughness in older buns.
 

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