Thankful to be a member!

[user 8296]

Thankful to be a member! We actually joined in February but some exciting and time-consuming projects with six grandchildren have delayed us from participating fully. We now have 30 kits ready to be butchered so we are ready to turn our attention to some serious rabbit details!
Our history:
We had milk goats on USDA milk test since 1993 and then changed to Katahdin sheep. We rehomed our sheep and goats in early 2021 and purchased 6 breeding New Zealand rabbits and a NZ buck. (Had a breeding Californian couple from 2016 to 2021 and we were kind of happy with them.)
We are super happy with the K&W cages, GAW, and set on 1/4” flat bar stands. Our bunnies have a pole barn type shelter with blown insulation under the roof. Because of its location and fans, the rabbits do very well considering the extreme heat here in south Georgia. I’m excited to try brining our newly butchered rabbits next week and then canning and/or freezing them. Would very much welcome any ideas of preservation and recipes because I’d love my kids and grandkids to love rabbit as much as we do!
Steve and Jeanne

 

[ladysown]

Are you going to just let them sit in the brine or freeze them in marinade?
What type of recipes do you like?

Rabbit pot pie turned my hubby onto haveing rabbit in dishes.

 

[user 8296]

Are you going to just let them sit in the brine or freeze them in marinade?
What type of recipes do you like?

Rabbit pot pie turned my hubby onto haveing rabbit in dishes.

Hi ladysown, I’m not sure where my reply to you went last Wednesday but I’ll try again! Since my original post to you, we’ve had more time to consider the logistics of salt brining. Although we have access to my Dad’s refrigerator too, we will only brine one “batch” of rabbits. My reasoning is that years ago when I graduated from college and could not got get a job in my field, I ended up by learning in a butcher shop! The hams that we put in the huge crocs with a salt brine had to stay refrigerated for many weeks. Thinking like this, I will be using my sous vide tub to brine as many rabbits (weighed down) in the salt brine for around two weeks. Then the rabbits get drained, padded dry,and frozen. I wouldn’t have the space for more than that for this experiment. The remainder of butchered rabbits will have a rigorous salt rub before they are frozen. The whole idea is to thaw a carcass and get maximum tenderness and flavor when they’re cooked. We are so happy to eat rabbit in any form and I agree with you that rabbit pot pie is divine!

 

[Skai]

I never tried a brine with rabbit. I just laid the freshly harvested rabbits on trays in the fridge, uncovered, for 24-48 hours. They went through rigor and became very soft, then into the freezer. I know some people brine but I always assumed it was because they didn't allow for rigor. All meat benefits from a rest before freezing or cooking.

 

[user 8296]

I never tried a brine with rabbit. I just laid the freshly harvested rabbits on trays in the fridge, uncovered, for 24-48 hours. They went through rigor and became very soft, then into the freezer. I know some people brine but I always assumed it was because they didn't allow for rigor. All meat benefits from a rest before freezing or cooking.

Thank you Skai! We have so many rabbits to butcher ahead that I will definitely try your method.

 

[user 8296]

OK! 17 butchered bunnies later and I have different methods and outcomes still to assess!! I am so pleased with the Sous Vide method of pre-cooking the rabbits that I don’t want to stray far from that successful method to guarantee tenderness. For this reason I vacuum sealed all of the meat.
I allowed the freshly butchered meat to cure in the refrigerator for anywhere from 12, 24, 36, or 48 hours. At this point I ran out of time with a college graduation for granddaughter to attend so I vacuum sealed and froze everything. Meanwhile the clamp on my sous vide machine broke so in order to successfully sous vide my rabbit I will need to put the machine in a different container and I will need to repackage all my rabbits from long whole-rabbit packages to half rabbit or pieces!! I’m not disappointed by this project because I further intend to brine them at different intervals to determine the flavor. I would also like to compare brining them to dry rubbing them. I can see this project is going to take a while but it’s very exciting to come up with a tender meat that all six grandchildren two daughters and my husband say is the best rabbit they’ve ever tasted. (Which of course is only the rabbit we have here ha ha )

 

[Markshere2]

I have lots of bunnies in the freezer, but ..... I have lost a lot of food to freezer failures in the past.

I just started canning, and my first effort was stewe3d rabbits.
Got 6 of the 7 quarts to seal, so now I don't have to worry about losing power.

Nest attempt, pack them raw w/ spices and veggies and let the 90 minute can process cook them all.

 

[HTAcres]

For anyone new to eating rabbit, I like recipes where the meat is cooked and shredded or cubed. Actually, this even helps me. I still haven't quite got past the rabbitness look of the whole rabbit or pieces. We converted several family favorite chicken recipes to rabbit and everyone thought it was better. I am very interested in hearing the results of your brining experiments. We can certainly do better with our methods.

 

[Skai]

My favorite is chicken-fried rabbit. Tastes like chicken! But even more tender and juicy. For rabbits past their prime, grind them up with some salt, pepper and sage. Maybe red pepper flakes if you like it spicy. Form into patties, put a piece of wax paper between the patties and pop into a plastic bag. Wonderful breakfast sausage and a great way to use some of the parts you normally might not eat.