Eating rabbit?

I love eating rabbit. For those older bunnies and jacks especially, try soaking them in buttermilk overnight before cooking them. Tenderizes the meat quite well and adds a different flavor to the meat. Mmm-boy... time to get out for some bunnies.
 
Am I the only one getting hungry here?! Here in Tennessee I eat them any time (don't tell anyone). Don't wait for frost to hit since they show up in abundance when I'm getting the garden going in the spring. Nothin like fresh veggies and fresh rabbit to boot! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
This makes me want to start hunting rabbits again. Especially the coonass recipes. Best cookin' on the planet....... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
If I try to wait till a frost around here I would never hunt rabbit ! here in los angeles its been in the 90's. Can't even take the dog out in that heat.

I would just look them over. I think rabbits in the south have bot fly and a few other nasty things we don't have out west. If you have botfly in you area I wouldn't eat rabbit till frost.

I'll have to try some of these recipes , i'm going this weekend hopefully I'll get some.
 
As was already mentioned I've always heard that your supposed to eat rabbit after the first freeze.I've never even tryed rabbit before but Im gonna have to shoot a couple and try it.A guy that comes down to pheasant hunt with us brings his dad and he's about 94 years old and every year he has me shoot a couple of cottontails for him to take home.He thinks they are the best eatin there is.He told me that jackrabbit is tough unless you shoot em' when their little.I imagine he would know too.He used to take my grandpa huntin when he was my age.He's a funny old man and he can tell some good stories.He was a duck killin machine years ago.I'll see him in a couple of weeks when pheasant season starts.The cottontails better get ready too. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
YUM YUM!! Rabbits.

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I grew up in S.W. Pennsylvania, and as a kid with a pellet rifle and than a .22, I ate them year round. In the summer, cooked over a fire while camping. Worms come off with the skin or are just cooked up extra protein. I've heard the same thing about the first frost, but I've been eating them since about 1960.
 
I fixed some swamp rabbits down near East Texas State U. when we shot some in cornfields. Guy showed me how to clean a rabbit in less than a minute with no tool or knife, but his thumbnail and a good grip. Beats anything I had ever seen before and even now I am not sure what I saw.

We put the rabbit in a medium heat with plain old Mushroom Soup poured over the top!

It was very good and there were NO LEFTOVERS!
 
Hasenpfeffer

4 lbs of Rabbit
1 1/2 c Dry red wine
3/4 c Cider vinegar
2 ts Salt; optional
1/2 ts Freshly ground black pepper
1 Bay leaf
1/2 c Onions; chopped
1 tb Mixed pickling spice
1/2 c Flour
4 tb Butter
1 c Onions; thinly sliced
2 tb Sugar
1/2 c Sour cream

Cut rabbit in serving-sized pieces. Wash, scrape, and soak in salted cold water for 1 hour. Drain and dry.
In a glass or pottery bowl mix together the wine, vinegar, salt, pepper, bay leaf, chopped onions, and pickling spice. Add the rabbit and let marinate in the refirgerator for 3 days. Turn the pieces occasinally. Drain the rabbit; strain and reserve the marinade. Dry the rabbit with paper towels and roll in flour.

Melt butter in a Dutch oven or deep heavy skillet; brown the rabbit and sliced onions in it. Pour off fat and add sugar and 1-1/2 cups marinade. Cover and cook over low heat 1-1/2 hours or until rabbit is tender. Turn the pieces occasionally and add more marinade if needed. Taste for seasoning. Mix the sour cream into the gravy just before serving.

I also like to use bacon grease to brown them too.

Some times after a January hunt we get the dogs fed and get warmed up. Take the fresh cleaned rabbits and just throw them on the grill with some bacon and chopped onions stuffed in them.
 
oh yeah I do have to mention i got a big jack last year in when it was way down in the teens and this was february there where many many months of frost. Theere where still tons of mites living in its ears, yuck !
 
I must be getting 'into' the wild game thing too much in my old age! @ the Outdoor goods store, a guy noticed all the Pecan chips, Mesquite logs, and Hickory shavings so he asked me, "What are you going to cook?" And after just a short pause I answered, "Coyote! Theres no season on them, they are not on any ENDANGERD SPECIES LIST, and they look pretty much like DOG TO ME which is a delicacy even now in the Orient, particularly Vietnam where you don't see many running around in the protein starved place."

My dog, Brutus, was killed by ARVN after I DEROSED to the USA and they ate him! You can bet that would'nt have happened had I still been there!

HEY! I'll let you know how it turns out on the grill! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif
 
We'll all be eating a lot of rabbit soon when the Re-Distribution of wealth-already started by Bush-hits high gear next year. H. Ross Perot was spot on about the 'giant sucking sounds' from nearly all places in the planet who wish to tap into the bounty here in the USA from sea to shining sea! We may want to start keeping at least some of it for SEED MONEY and to buy flour to fry up our rabbits!

I'm READY!

Lockandloadonetwentyroundmagazine! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
I like the comments from NM about disease and think cooking will kill the problem before frost will. I might add that browning rabbit or pheasant in bacon fat (from good slab bacon) adds wonderful flavor and neutralizes the good health benifits of eating low fat wild game.


A Savior was born in Bethleham.
 
Deputy sam, That may be the way I used to clean rabbit but I do occasionally need a knife for a ligament at the ankle joint. When the rabbit is still warm just tear the hide at the middle of the back and pull off towards each end and down each leg, break the joints at the ankle and throw the fur away after twisting off head without ever touching hair to meat. You can easily open abdomen and gut now or do that at home if there is no water near by to rinse hands. I used to carry a bread bag to put the meat in.

It may switch from a huge sucking sound to more of a dry heave.

God bless the Republic.
 
Some of my older friends have told me that in the Great Depression era they called rabbits "Hoover Hogs" cause President Hoover had promised a hog in every yard and a chicken in every pot, or words to that effect. Folks said the only thing in their cooking pot was rabbit, so they called 'em Hoover Hogs.
 
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