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. . .if you’ve ever eaten Rabbit? Ah, I see you there across the waters. . . .Okay, raise you’re hand only if your an American and have eaten Rabbit? Ah, not so many hands now. . .Why? Are they too fuzzy and cute? Did you have one as a pet? Do your children? Have you been sold against it by some wacko animal rights campaign suggesting they are our furred bretheren? Or is it you’ve never had the opportunity?
My first experience eating Rabbit was in University as a starving student. You could literally buy whole rabbit cheaper than any other meat, like chicken. Only one grocery store that I can remember sold it, and although I can only remember cooking it once–a Rich Hunter’s Stew–I know I ate it more often than that. It was good tasting and cheap and no one I fed it to was any the wiser.
Fast forward 10plus years in which time I had not eaten rabbit. A local farmer is selling rabbits–$10 each. I buy 8. We eat a couple. The girls don’t know about the first one. When I get caught preparing the second they race out to count their own pets, coming in the door relieved. They like it, as long as it’s not one they know. The rest of the bunnies are served to clients, prepared in different ways. My favorite was a Rabbit Paella. I don’t think I ever tried roasting any, but I did cook braised rabbit in our Wood Fired Oven once–I think there was cider involved as well. As they were frozen, they kept fairly well for a year or more, though the less time in the freeze the better–it is a very dry meat and can’t stand getting any drier or tougher.
That was a few years ago. I haven’t had rabbit since, and I’m not sure the farmer we got them from is still raising them for meat. Funnily enough though I often think about ways to cook rabbit. I had only just been watching the River Cottage shows, I borrowed, a few weeks ago–Hugh Fearnly Whittingstall catches wild rabbits, makes and sells Bunny Burgers in one of them–when last week my clients asked me if I knew how to cook rabbit, and where I could get some? After smacking our lips over a few recipes we decided that at some point in the future, should I obtain rabbit, they would love to partake.
And so I began my search for rabbit meat today. It is early enough that I can’t call my farmer friend to see if he is still raising rabbits or knows someone who does. So, I hit Google. There is plenty of information on how to raise rabbits for meat, and there is plenty of propaganda against eating rabbits, but there is almost nowhere that sells whole, fresh rabbit for human consumption. They closest one can get is two companies which sell rabbit in various states as pet food for other animals.
Now whether you agree with the consumption of bunnies or not, the fact is that they are good eating. Rabbit meat is healthier than most other meats we eat and their consumption is no different than eating chickens, goats, lamb, or any other animal which can be considered cute at some stage. I am not suggesting we invite ourselves over to a friend’s house to consumer their children’s pet rabbit however. I believe that rabbits raised as meat are not pets, the same as lambs, pigs, etc.
Wild rabbit is something I have never had. Although they run rampant over the island, our little corner of paradise in unafflicted. There are several diseases wild rabbits have which, to my mind, make them less appealing–the worst of which is Tularemia because it passes on to Humans. Myximatosis is bad from a rabbit’s standpoint but doesn’t seem to affect the eater too much–although it probably would not be the best to consume a rabbit with obvious signs. I did stumble on this tasty article about wild rabbits.
If you have any rabbit experience, I’d love to know. The sky is a lighter shade of grey now. I’ve got a farmer to phone. . . .
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