First time ever eating rabbit....

[drumstick diva]

wyoDreamer, so does squirrel taste like chicken too? If you think about you could say chicken tastes like rabbit, duh!

 

[wyoDreamer]

Quote:
I remember the squirrel tasting like rabbit!

My mom only made it one way - brown the pieces in bacon grease in the cast iron pan, add sliced onions, mushrooms if we had them, salt, pepper and water to cover. Simmer for 1 - 2 hours. Remove pieces, thicken liquid for gravy, add meat back in (bone and all) and serve with boiled potatoes. Made a nice dark gravey too.

I never had chicken cooked like that, so I couldn't say if it tasted like chicken or not.
I would say it was a much richer tasting meat, not gamey like venison, but not like beef either. It was fairly mild in taste, but had more taste and texture than chicken.
By the way, she cooked the venison pretty much the same way

She made porkchops pretty much the same way too, and the squirrel/rabbit did not taste like pork chops!

 

[hpc4th1]

Ate lots growing up. Chicken for sure!

 

[D'Angelo N Va.]

I absolutely love rabbit and ate plenty of them growing up. I was in napa valley a couple of years ago and was shocked to see it on several menus if restaurants that I went to. I got it each time I saw it. It was so good. It made me wonder why it is not on more menus, ie Virginia.

 

[IRChicken]

Eating rabbit can make a person sick. Tularemia will cause fever and skin lesions.
An old time remedy, called for removing the left tendons before cooking, to avoid becoming sick. Apparently the left tendons harbored the infectious agents. Maybe something to do with anatomy and biology of rabbits.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Quote:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tularemia


It appears that if the animals are sick they LOOK sick, or die. I always inspect all parts the animal as I am butchering it to make sure everything looks healthy, especially the organs.

Plus; it appears there are only approximately 200 cases of tularemia reported each year in the United States, and it's much more common in wild animals. Which WE don't eat.

 

[jtbrown]

My grandmother used to fry up chicken, rabbit and squirrel for Sunday dinner, there were lots of us to feed, no one knew for a while. My mother freaked out and refused to eat anything but the mashed potatoes, and then my grandmother put garlic in those, and well, not good.

I have somewhat of an aversion to rabbit/squirrel only based on the fact that my mom flipped out about it and it kinda stuck in my head. But if I recall, grandma wouldn't tell us what it was until after. Sometimes, it would be mixed up fried on the plate, then it caused us to look at every piece of meat like it was something odd. LOL.

Oh well, so now,I have my grandmother's nest boxes, and wish she were here to show me how to butcher the chickens. But instead, I have BYC and a friendly egg producer in my area that will show me, so it's good. Bet my granny never saw me turning into the quasi home steader.

I can't help but think rabbits would be good, but they are so furry and cute. I thought about it as we walked by all of those meat rabbits at the fair last week. Just don't know if I could do it.

 

[Evelle]

i know its very lean but is it greesy like duck??
im looking to raise some next spring. i hope to find some good newzelands here in n. idaho

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Quote:

Nope not greasy AT ALL. Just like chicken, minus the grease. Really.

 

[mommissan]

I've been told by a redneck or two that it's more digestible than most other meats. Claimed his sister had cancer and couldn't hold any other meat down except rabbit. True?