Color of meat

[Tom in Kingman]

I have been led to believe that wild rabbit meat is dark and domesticated rabbit meat is white. Now, if a person suddenly no longer has access to the store bought pellets and must grow feed will the meat become dark? I know some of you feed other than store bought so you would see a change if there is one. Thank you.

 

[mystang89]

I haven't noticed a difference in color. Still nice and pink to me. Taste the same for me too.

 

[DonnerSurvivor]

The local cottontails have the same/similar colored meat as domestic rabbits. Maybe Jack rabbits are different?

 

[Dood]

My rabbit meat is little bit darker compared to rabbit I use to buy at the market but I supplement my rabbits with hay, kale, branches etc...

My free range chicken meat is MUCH darker than store bought, even the late fall hatchlings who grow over the winter when there is no grass or bugs to forage on, but again, they are supplemented as much as we can with scraps.

Perhaps that's the difference.

 

[skysthelimit]

Isn't dark meat more muscular meat (more capillaries)? Maybe wild ones have more dark meat because they get more exercise?

 

[3mina]

The meat is only darker if the carcass isn't bled out when processed. It's a European way preference. Hares have dark meat.

 

[GBov]

When I hang a fresh killed rabbit by the feet the meat is a bit lighter in color than if I hang it by the head.

Slight difference in flavor too but very very slight.

The only wild rabbit I have had from Florida looked just like my home raised ones except that its fat was yellow and slimy to the touch. The flavor was REALLY different though but perhaps that was because it was living in the woods and eating acorns? Dont know but by gum it was good!

Hmmmmm, I wonder if feeding acorns to cage bunnies would richen the flavor of the meat?

 

[Kyle@theWintertime]

I can't say for sure for rabbits, but if you gave me a steak from a deer shot in the swamp in Bitely next to a steak from a deer shot off of my friend's farm, I can tell the difference. The corn-fed farm-raiding deer is milder and has a more beef-y flavor, while the swamp deer who ate cedar and acorns has a much richer, more "gamey" flavor that I personally prefer. So I'd be curious how acorns and other "wild" foods would affect a rabbit's flavor...........

 

[MaggieJ]

I feed my rabbits a natural diet including abundant weeds. I like the flavour of the meat better than when I fed them pellets. It's like the difference between free range chicken and store-bought. I have not noticed a difference in the colour of the meat.

 

[Frosted Rabbits]

I noticed a difference in the meat color of my chickens vs store bought-- I have only seen my rabbit meat, so don't know anyting other than "wild" is dark, and 'domestic is white' In birds, yes, meat is cpolored diofferently based on the muscle use-- the 'fast' muscle is white, while the slowe muscle is dark--(go figure- breast meat is 'fast') it has to do with the rate at which energy gets used by the muscle fibers as they work, I beleive.
meat wil be flavored by sucvh things as nuts-- deer eat the WHOLE acorn-- shell and all. The shells contain high levels of tannic acids- squirrels, do not eat teh shells. So, eys, dear feeding on a heavy mast crop will very likely taste quite differently than those feeding on the neighbors sweet corn. I do know, that straight grass fed beef is not as sweet tasting as beef that has been finished with corn..

 

[ramblingrabbit]

This is an interesting explanation of what makes meat different colors: http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/me ... color.html