Do you eat pre or post rigor mortis?

Do you tend to eat your rabbit meat before rigor mortis or to you let the meat go through rigor mortis then relax in the refrigerator? I am thinking that freezing before rigor mortis sets in would be pre-rigor mortis. I have frozen all of my rabbits before rigor mortis. I do not have experience, but I assume, if one of these rabbits had been thawed out and been allowed to sit-out, the meat would develop rigor mortis, (if you have knowledge tell me).

I tend to over romanticize the idea of snuffing out a creature in the morning then slip the still limp carcass into the stewpot for a late-afternoon meal. This does seem to emulate the way most predators consume their prey just after killing it.

One factor that my have been in my choosing to cook of freeze my rabbits prior to rigor mortis is that all the rabbits that I cooked involved putting the whole dresses carcass in a pot and simmering on low. My cooking skills are limited to making soups or stews. I love the delicious tasting soups with the tender meat.

According from I read on forums in 2007, eating meat that was cooked during rigor mortis seems rather "bouncy". I don't know if cooking in water reduced this bounciness. A second factor that I shared a rabbitry with my neighbor, and I would get get a few rabbits each time our doe kindled. During my rabbitry experience I would only work one rabbit at a time, so I would finish well before the rabbit started to stiffening up.

What is your experience do you tend to cook pre or post rigor mortis?

i usually butcher and immediately bag and freeze mine, no 'resting' period. sometimes if i want rabbit that night or the next day, i'll toss one in a stew pot and brine it in the fridge for a few hours or overnight. i've eaten them before, during, and after rigor mortis, and honestly i don't find much of a difference in texture and flavour.

shazza":1i80hcmi said:

i've eaten them before, during, and after rigor mortis, and honestly i don't find much of a difference in texture and flavour.

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When you eat a rabbit during rigor mortis does it matter if you stew it, bake it, or fry it?

The only way I have eaten rabbits raised on my rabbitry, started out by simmering the rabbit in a pot slowly at low temperatures. There was only one time (the first time) I eat rabbit cooked differently. Many years earlier, my mother purchased a box of pel-freez (frozen rabbit) and she fried it. I generally loved my mothers cooking, but I was not impressed by the fried rabbit. The only thing I thought was this is just like fried chicken, only much tougher. It was not until I eat rabbit soup that I was impressed by the meat.

we usually grill or roast ours whole, occasionally i'll debone one and make stew/gumbo/curry/whatever. but probably 80% of the time we grill or roast them. it all tastes good to me

I fry my New Zealand's all the time. At 5 lbs which is 10 or 11 weeks old. I dress them and freeze them. Have never had a tough one.

UFCreel":2upkji6l said:

I fry my New Zealand's all the time. At 5 lbs which is 10 or 11 weeks old. I dress them and freeze them. Have never had a tough one.

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So you are saying that you freeze them as soon as they are dressed, without letting them resting th the refrigerator? Do you know if the joints were still relaxed before freezing, or if the muscles in the legs had started to stiffen up prior to freezing?

The reason that I started this thread is that, some videos seem to insist that the meat rest before eating, otherwise it will not have a good texture.

I always soak the meat in salt water for about an hour before freezing. One time we put an old doe directly in the crock pot. Maybe it matters more if they are old, but that was the toughest meat I ever care to taste! So after that I always soak them.

I use a Rabbit Hopper. Skin and gut them. Then i pop them in a bucket of ice water. Then bring them inside, clean them up good and then part them out. I then put them in food saver bags and seal. I work quick. So never really have them get stiff. I never leave them whole. Just easier to do it all right away. So when it is time to fry them i don't have to cut them up.