Is "bleeding out" necessary, and why?

[dragonladyleanne]

I asked this in the middle of another thread, but it never got answered, probably because it got "lost" in answers to the original questions of the thread it was in. I have been told to slaughter by cutting the throat (which I don't want to do, as it seems rather messy), but even the videos I have seen where the rabbit is dispatched some other way, they hang it upside down and cut off the head. I am planning on tanning the furs, and using the meat for my own or friends' consumption, and maybe selling the furs at Ren Faires. The few vendors I have seen with furs often leave the heads ON fox furs, so why would it not be done for rabbit furs, too? Also, why must the rabbit be hung to "bleed out" after killing, is it just to make butchering it less messy, or is there some tenderness or edibility issue if you just cut it up right after slaughter?

 

[tm_bunnyloft]

The purpose of bleeding out is generally for cleaner looking meat and better taste as well. It is also required for meat consumption in some religions.

 

[Nyctra]

Full pelts look nicer hung on walls and such, I think, and some people like to use them for taxidermy. I think rabbits are harder to skin and mount because of their ears? I can't think of any use for a face... I only bother skinning the face if I'm keeping the skull. (..or eating them..REALLY tempted to make bunnyface spaghetti for Halloween to creep people out. :twisted: )

 

[Secuono]

Well I certainly don't want to be eating cooked coagulated blood.
Rabbits bleed out real fast and clot real quick as well. At least all of mine do, which is a pain, but at least there isn't too much blood to worry about.
Idk why the fox people keep heads, but you don't need to cut the whole head off. You just need to cut the jugular veins. But if you are not stunning and just nicking the veins, then it's just a hassle and waste. Plus you don't have that much time to fool around looking for them before the heart stops.
The head gives you nothing fur-wise, no idea why you would want to keep it.

 

[dragonladyleanne]

I have one buck who looks like a checkered giant except for a topknot between his ears, which several folks said looks like he has lionshead blood. I'm thinking if any of his offspring have that same thing, I'd want to offer the pelt with that still attached, and the ears too. I can see if I were going to be a more normal "commercial" operation, selling the meat, with the pelts just a sideline being sold to furriers, there'd be no point to the extra care needed, but SCAdians are an unusual market. Most of them DO want (or at least would prefer it if offered the choice) faces left on. The fox faces are often made into headgear, though of course they'll say it's wolf. Not sure if a bunny helmet has the same cachet though, LOL


:zombiebun: Snorfinn the Bunny Slayer

 

[3mina]

The head doesn't HAVE to come off when you're butchering and you can most certainly take the fur off the head, you just have to cut the ears away from the skull.
I had someone order rabbit from me a long time ago that requested the heads left on and not bled out, they wanted a darker meat. From what I understood then, its the way rabbits are done in Europe

 

[hoodat]

I have one buck who looks like a checkered giant except for a topknot between his ears, which several folks said looks like he has lionshead blood. I'm thinking if any of his offspring have that same thing, I'd want to offer the pelt with that still attached, and the ears too. I can see if I were going to be a more normal "commercial" operation, selling the meat, with the pelts just a sideline being sold to furriers, there'd be no point to the extra care needed, but SCAdians are an unusual market. Most of them DO want (or at least would prefer it if offered the choice) faces left on. The fox faces are often made into headgear, though of course they'll say it's wolf. Not sure if a bunny helmet has the same cachet though, LOL


:zombiebun: Snorfinn the Bunny Slayer

I did some trapping when I was younger and skunk and coon "Davy Crocket" hats were a money making sideline. As A joke I made some "Nerdy Crocket" hats from possum with the rat tail hanging down in the back.
Coon hats are not as easy to make as you might think. It takes 3 average sized coons to make a hat if done properly. The face should be facing front with taxidermy eyes.

To get back to the original question, the main reason for bleeding out is to keep the mild rabbit taste. It doesn't affect edibility a bit.Europeans often save the blood to make a sort of gravy sauce to pour over the cooked meat. They include the heart, liver, kidneys and lungs in the sauce.

 

[dragonladyleanne]

I follow many medieval recipes, so I am aware of the blood's use in sauces and blood pudding. Also, to keep ANY meat moist while cooking, the more fat or blood left in (or added), the better. Since rabbits don't have any fat to speak of, I'm thinking a juicy body is better for my purposes than a bled out "white" meat. Thanks for all the replies, it was one of those "everybody does this" things that no one explained the WHY, and I am just one of those WHY kinda gals, LOL!

 

[Piper]

If you dispatch the rabbit, by broomstick or like in this video, the question of losing head fur, becomes academic.
post60530.html#p60530
http://www.youtube.com/watch/?v=dpDmHG_8pwE
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as far as bleeding, I think it is a way to dry the surface of the meat, to delay growth of unfavorable organisms. These are sausages that do not have preservatives added, they are cured the old way.
Dry-Cured Sausages: Kissed by Air, Never by Fire
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/17/dinin ... html/?_r=2
The smell of rot — the ripe funk you breathe in Italian pork stores and French charcuteries — has always been part of the craft of curing. Traditional dry-cured sausages — the rough-textured, chewy ones like Italian soppressata and French saucisson sec — aren't cooked. Instead, the raw meat is stuffed into natural casings and left exposed to the air, picking up wild yeasts and cultures that start fermentation. Then, like wine and cheese, the sausages are aged in a cool, humid place to develop the rounded, savory taste that comes from slow ripening. White mold grows on the outside; water drips out as the sausage dries.

"When I was a kid, the salamis used to drip on the customers' heads, and the smell was fantastic," said Louis Faicco, an owner of Faicco's Pork Store in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. "Now they are all locked away upstairs where no one can see them or smell them."...
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more at the article

 

[dragonladyleanne]

Now if only I could get that guy from the video to come show me exactly how hard and where he smacked the rabbit! I have no problem with the idea of killing a rabbit, and I have cut up more than one animal in my lifetime, though only the entire process, gutting and beheading included, with fish. But I flinched or had bad aim the one time I tried to dispatch a rabbit, and I *never* want to hear that scream again!

 

[Piper]

Now if only I could get that guy from the video to come show me exactly how hard and where he smacked the rabbit! I have no problem with the idea of killing a rabbit, and I have cut up more than one animal in my lifetime, though only the entire process, gutting and beheading included, with fish. But I flinched or had bad aim the one time I tried to dispatch a rabbit, and I *never* want to hear that scream again!

Have you used the broomstick method?

 

[dragonladyleanne]

Now if only I could get that guy from the video to come show me exactly how hard and where he smacked the rabbit! I have no problem with the idea of killing a rabbit, and I have cut up more than one animal in my lifetime, though only the entire process, gutting and beheading included, with fish. But I flinched or had bad aim the one time I tried to dispatch a rabbit, and I *never* want to hear that scream again!

Have you used the broomstick method?

Soooo, note the bold highlighted bit, I have NEVER killed a rabbit before! I have a bit of trouble bending over these days, or I'd use the broomstick method. I am thinking of making something like that rabbit wringer only on a table at waist height, and hinged like a paper cutter (someone on here showed something like that). Unless I can talk one of my less tender-hearted friends into doing the dispatching in exchange for a partial share of meat! I know I am odd, as once it is dead, then it is meat, and I can do the skinning and butchering - but I can't stand the idea of it suffering or being afraid!

 

[tm_bunnyloft]

I use the broom stick method but would sure like one of those rabbit wringers that you hang on wall for rabbits and chickens. Eventually I will have one. At this point I can't sell any meat cuz my weight lifter husband thinks he will eat it all. Soon he will realize the error in his thinking.<br /><br />__________ Mon Aug 27, 2012 6:36 pm __________<br /><br />Oops I should say body builder not weight lifter.

 

[Piper]

Soooo, note the bold highlighted bit, I have NEVER killed a rabbit before! I have a bit of trouble bending over these days, or I'd use the broomstick method. I am thinking of making something like that rabbit wringer only on a table at waist height, and hinged like a paper cutter (someone on here showed something like that). Unless I can talk one of my less tender-hearted friends into doing the dispatching in exchange for a partial share of meat! I know I am odd, as once it is dead, then it is meat, and I can do the skinning and butchering - but I can't stand the idea of it suffering or being afraid!

I suggest that you find another 'meat' breeder. There is a high possibility, with rabbits that you will eventually have to put a rabbit out of it's misery. If someone teaches you how to do it (now), with being able to respect it's life, it can be easier if you have to do it to one, that you were thinking of wanting to keep, but has had an accident or unrecoverable illness.
- It could be a lot easier, learning with someone else's rabbit, than the first time, being one of your own.

 

[GBov]

The less blood left in the longer the meat keeps fresh. The more blood left in the meat the richer the flavor.

I dont bleed them out, other than what bleeds into the neck break space, and have had rabbit meat keep fresh and sweet for over three weeks in the fridge so I dont know how much longer a bled carcase will keep.

When I skin them out I actually scoop out the big blood clot from the neck area and it goes in the pan with the heart and kidneys and liver to fry gently in butter and garlic.

Mmmmmmmm fantastic!

If you are worried about dispatching at first get a small .22 riffle and an open topped cage. I made my one with two by four welded wire mesh. Then pop your bun into the cage, put it onto a patch of grass, wait for the bun to be still and eating and then POP! Dead bunny.

Easy peasy.

Then once you get use to that you can either keep doing it that way or move up to a wringer or table top dispatcher or a broomstick or hatchet or what ever else you like.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

e less blood left in the longer the meat keeps fresh. The more blood left in the meat the richer the flavor.

Really? I learn something new every day. On a good day, more than one thing.

 

[GBov]

e less blood left in the longer the meat keeps fresh. The more blood left in the meat the richer the flavor.

Really? I learn something new every day. On a good day, more than one thing.

That is what I was told when I tried to find out why the blood is wasted most of the time.

 

[6riversfarms]

I have never intentionally bled out any animal after dispatching it and can't think of anyone that I know very well that does so. Therefore I would say it is not necessary. I don't have any way to compare what an animal that is bled out tastes like compared to one that is not.

I may try it to see.<br /><br />__________ Fri Aug 31, 2012 3:05 pm __________<br /><br />I just thought of something. Over the last few years we have let deboned or quartered meat set in an Ice chest covered in icy water several days while at the camp and the ice water takes most of yhe blood out of the meat. The meat that was stored this way does have a whiter look and milder taste, which I do not like as well as meat that hasn't had the blood drawn out.

 

[GBov]

I just thought of something. Over the last few years we have let deboned or quartered meat set in an Ice chest covered in icy water several days while at the camp and the ice water takes most of yhe blood out of the meat. The meat that was stored this way does have a whiter look and milder taste, which I do not like as well as meat that hasn't had the blood drawn out.

You can soak all the flavor out of meat by letting it sit in water.

 

[Therian]

I use the broom stick method but would sure like one of those rabbit wringers that you hang on wall for rabbits and chickens. Eventually I will have one. At this point I can't sell any meat cuz my weight lifter husband thinks he will eat it all. Soon he will realize the error in his thinking.

__________ Mon Aug 27, 2012 6:36 pm __________

Oops I should say body builder not weight lifter.

Eh those wranglers are over priced pieces of metal, you can make a rebar one cheaper and just as effective. Honestly though for as easy as it is to do the broomstick is just as good. My biggest issue is the rabbits want to kick when I try to position them on a homemade wrangler I made...I find they're more "relaxed" if I set them down and broomstick them within 2-3 seconds.