Exciting! Rabbit breakfast sausage.

[eco2pia]

I got this idea from a comment made by @Olbunny I think.

I have never liked that belly flaps are attached to loin, the loin is the most tender and the belly flaps are the most tough, and typically I would chop them all together and make stir fry or something out of them.

On the most recent harvest day, I set aside all the belly flaps separately. I had a tidy little stack. Maybe almost a pound from four rabbits. I froze them and today I chunked them into pieces and ground them up in a food processor a little at a time. After the first pass I added some things. In retrospect, I think I should have used more belly flaps, but this is a good starting point!

Rabbit Breakfast Sausage

1 lb belly flaps frozen and cubed
1 egg
3 rabbit kidneys with surrounding fat, frozen
1 tablespoon bacon grease or other cooking fat
2 tablespoons dried wild mushrooms ground up or crumbled, soaked in a little soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1 tablespoon fresh parsley
1 tablespoon fresh sage

First grind the rabbit and the kidneys in a food processor or meat grinder while still frozen. Then put the ground rabbit, spices and other ingredients back in the food processor (or if yours is big enough just add them) and grind again. If using a food processor don't go crazy. You still want there to be a little texture but it will get gooey when you add the egg.

In the future, I will keep more of the internal fat and kidneys for this recipe and maybe use less of the bacon grease. You could also omit any of the spices or the mushrooms if you so choose. This was very much one of those recipes that I invented by just grabbing what I saw around my kitchen and using it. You will need some fat to help bind things together, and for me eggs are plentiful so I chose that option. If you don't tolerate eggs well, add more fat.

This recipe made very soft, wet sausage that was hard to shape. I used a cookie scoop to make little balls on parchment paper which I flattened with my fingertips. Then I put them in the freezer so that they can be stored in a bag frozen without sticking to each other later. I tried one right away and it was delicious!

The success of this recipe has convinced me that I either need a larger food processor or a real meat grinder because I want to make this very much more often and my food processor only holds two cups.

 

[Lil Acorn Acres Farm]

I got this idea from a comment made by @Olbunny I think.

I have never liked that belly flaps are attached to loin, the loin is the most tender and the belly flaps are the most tough, and typically I would chop them all together and make stir fry or something out of them.

On the most recent harvest day, I set aside all the belly flaps separately. I had a tidy little stack. Maybe almost a pound from four rabbits. I froze them and today I chunked them into pieces and ground them up in a food processor a little at a time. After the first pass I added some things. In retrospect, I think I should have used more belly flaps, but this is a good starting point!

Rabbit Breakfast Sausage

1 lb belly flaps frozen and cubed
1 egg
3 rabbit kidneys with surrounding fat, frozen
1 tablespoon bacon grease or other cooking fat
2 tablespoons dried wild mushrooms ground up or crumbled, soaked in a little soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1 tablespoon fresh parsley
1 tablespoon fresh sage

First grind the rabbit and the kidneys in a food processor or meat grinder while still frozen. Then put the ground rabbit, spices and other ingredients back in the food processor (or if yours is big enough just add them) and grind again. If using a food processor don't go crazy. You still want there to be a little texture but it will get gooey when you add the egg.

In the future, I will keep more of the internal fat and kidneys for this recipe and maybe use less of the bacon grease. You could also omit any of the spices or the mushrooms if you so choose. This was very much one of those recipes that I invented by just grabbing what I saw around my kitchen and using it. You will need some fat to help bind things together, and for me eggs are plentiful so I chose that option. If you don't tolerate eggs well, add more fat.

This recipe made very soft, wet sausage that was hard to shape. I used a cookie scoop to make little balls on parchment paper which I flattened with my fingertips. Then I put them in the freezer so that they can be stored in a bag frozen without sticking to each other later. I tried one right away and it was delicious!

The success of this recipe has convinced me that I either need a larger food processor or a real meat grinder because I want to make this very much more often and my food processor only holds two cups.

Sounds yummy. I'm to process 6 or 7 this weekend. Ima do this.

 

[ladysown]

I'm trying to figure out how to save this recipe as a starting place.

 

[dlynn]

I got this idea from a comment made by @Olbunny I think.

I have never liked that belly flaps are attached to loin, the loin is the most tender and the belly flaps are the most tough, and typically I would chop them all together and make stir fry or something out of them.

On the most recent harvest day, I set aside all the belly flaps separately. I had a tidy little stack. Maybe almost a pound from four rabbits. I froze them and today I chunked them into pieces and ground them up in a food processor a little at a time. After the first pass I added some things. In retrospect, I think I should have used more belly flaps, but this is a good starting point!

Rabbit Breakfast Sausage

1 lb belly flaps frozen and cubed
1 egg
3 rabbit kidneys with surrounding fat, frozen
1 tablespoon bacon grease or other cooking fat
2 tablespoons dried wild mushrooms ground up or crumbled, soaked in a little soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1 tablespoon fresh parsley
1 tablespoon fresh sage

First grind the rabbit and the kidneys in a food processor or meat grinder while still frozen. Then put the ground rabbit, spices and other ingredients back in the food processor (or if yours is big enough just add them) and grind again. If using a food processor don't go crazy. You still want there to be a little texture but it will get gooey when you add the egg.

In the future, I will keep more of the internal fat and kidneys for this recipe and maybe use less of the bacon grease. You could also omit any of the spices or the mushrooms if you so choose. This was very much one of those recipes that I invented by just grabbing what I saw around my kitchen and using it. You will need some fat to help bind things together, and for me eggs are plentiful so I chose that option. If you don't tolerate eggs well, add more fat.

This recipe made very soft, wet sausage that was hard to shape. I used a cookie scoop to make little balls on parchment paper which I flattened with my fingertips. Then I put them in the freezer so that they can be stored in a bag frozen without sticking to each other later. I tried one right away and it was delicious!

The success of this recipe has convinced me that I either need a larger food processor or a real meat grinder because I want to make this very much more often and my food processor only holds two cups.

Thanks for sharing a new recipe to try sounds yummy. After my first attempt at sausage I bought the meat grinder for the kitchen aide for the same price as hand crank meat grinder. Love it. Better product than food processor. I use all the belly flaps, kidneys and fat surrounding them, and hearts for sausage. Pinterest is great for recipes. I've read because rabbits are so lean it can be dry.a lot of recipes add other fat for moisture. I haven't found it necessary. Don't know if it's because I feed sunflower seeds every day and they build a little more fat? I like the idea from greanaugardens.com to use grated apple for moisture I also add onion.with sage nutmeg cinnamon and a splash of oil. Hubby prefers the Italian sausage from the daring gourmet. Now we have a new flavor to try. I took a screen shot of your recipe to save it.

 

[Rabbit Tree Farm]

This sounds absolutely amazing! I can't wait to try it.

I make a wild turkey and venison sweet italian sausage that we love. It has lemon zest, sage and white wine among other things. I'm thinking rabbit would be great in it as well.

 

[Skai]

I de-bone an older whole rabbit. Include the liver, heart, and kidneys if you want. Add salt, pepper, sage, and a pinch of cayenne. Grind it all up together (I use my food processor), form into patties, stack with wax paper in between patties and freeze. It's really good.

 

[Olbunny]

Thank you for the atta boy. We have a meat grinder for doing moose burger. But a hand grinder would work great with a cone to make stuffed sausages. Or ground breakfast sausage. We butcher 2 litters at a time so 16-20 friers. And vacuum freeze all usable parts except prime pieces. And at the years end when we have some time pulling everything out n make sausages. Similar to using ground turkey if you just grind all without doing anything else. But making different recipes is great fun. Jalapeños peppers, or sweet Italian seasoning. Mix it with a pork front shoulder for a bigger batch with plenty of flavor
We use lamb cases. The ones that come wet. Put them in fresh water and stuff them. Sausage making is wide open. Just have to do it. But real nice to have different cuts for some variety

 

[eco2pia]

Well, I ended up buying a meat grinder attachment after my grandmother gave me a new-to-me KitchenAid. I ground 5.5 lbs of rabbit like it was nothing, and I just mixed up a batch of breakfast sausage, chorizo, and Italian sausage.

Since I just want the chorizo and Italian to be crumbles, I used more rabbit and less fat/filler. I'm letting them rest overnight and tomorrow I will cook a little bit of each one off to taste before I decide to freeze them in recipe sized packages.

I can make most of the food that I would like to be eating in my backyard, but my backyard will never be big enough for pigs, so I figure rabbit sausage might stand in for recipes where I would use pork, ham, or bacon.

If I get a good crop of ducklings this year, it would be interesting to try rabbit and duck mixed.

 

[dlynn]

I de-bone an older whole rabbit. Include the liver, heart, and kidneys if you want. Add salt, pepper, sage, and a pinch of cayenne. Grind it all up together (I use my food processor), form into patties, stack with wax paper in between patties and freeze. It's really good.

I don't have a lot of freezer, so also tried canning sausage as meatballs. No bread crumbs or egg. Roll into balls brown in hot 450* oven so they will hold shape. Making it really cold will help stiffen it so rolls easier. I did Italians in tomato juice, and potato sausage in bun broth. Pressure can at 10# weight or 11# dial 75 minutes for pint, 90 minutes for quart. To serve heat enough to pour off broth. Make your gravy or add more sauce gently heat balls in sauce . Or just heat jar in microwave for a meatball sub. They are great for fast meals and freed up freezer space.

 

[eco2pia]

I have canned patties before, it worked well, even though the jars were not so pretty. You make a good point @dlynn , I should probably end up canning it in with my spaghetti sauce in the fall! I am looking forward to a better tomato harvest this year, fingers crossed!

The italian sausage turned out perfect!

For Italian sausage flavored ground rabbit:

I started with 2.5lb ground rabbit.
I added:
1T balsamic vinegar +1T cider vinegar (the recipe called for 2T red wine vinegar, use what you have)
1.5T "fines herbs" form some packet of something (recipe called for 1T dried parsley)
1T garlic powder
1.5T dried onion soup mix (recipe called for onion powder)
1T dried basil
1T salt
1T black pepper
2t paprika
2t crushed red pepper flakes
3/4t ground fennel seed
1/2t sugar (recipe specified "brown sugar")
1t dried oregano (recipe wanted 1/8t)
(omitted due to lack of supplies: 1/8t thyme)

It is slightly too salty, but given that it will go in a sauce or on a pizza, I will just reduce the salt in the rest of the recipe and it will be perfect. I should have reduced the amount of salt to 1/2T because of the onion soup mix, which is mostly salt.

The chorizo is also pretty good, but that was not quite salty enough, so that recipe needs a little fussing.