Is there something “wrong” with eating rabbit? I know they’re cute, but so are cows and chickens. Rabbit is a popular meat in many other countries, why not here.
I’ve eaten a lot of rabbit (many years ago), fried and in stew, and I can tell you that young domestic rabbit is delicious.
First, let’s get this out of the way:
“Tastes like chicken”
Peace,
mangeorge
It’s cos they are pets for the most part.
They are also quite labour-intensive to rear compared to the amount of meat you get off 'em.
But they are super-tasty and low in fat. Yum!
My husband would have wild hassenpfeffer for dinner if they didn’t scream* when you badly hurt them. Lil’ bastards keep eating my pepper and tomato plants, and have no fear of humans. He chucked a rock at one the other night when it wouldn’t get the hint that he is a Big Bad Predator and Bunny must flee. It yelped in pain at the hit on the flank and ran. He felt bad until he saw the same rabbit (yes, it’s definitely the same one) in the yard not too long after. Then he stopped feeling bad and chucked another small rock at it, and it ran again.
I’m even a soft-hearted vegetarian, but they are eating my veggies, dammit.
I think rabbits outweigh the cuteness of cows and chickens, plus they’re soft and furry and pettable. Cows have rough hides, chickens are feathered. Rabbits win in the cute contest.
- Scream comparison, will spoiler for the soft-hearted: They sound like a young child screaming in utter pain/terror when hurt.
Also, I forgot to ask, are they popular as food where you live?
I’ve never had rabbit, but have always wanted to try it.
When I was in high school my younger sister had a pet rabbit that lived in a cage in our back yard. My dad, who was first-generation German, would occasionally make joking remarks about how long it had been since he’d had hassenpfeffer. One day I came home from my after-school job and said, “What’s for dinner tonight? Hassenpfeffer?”
The rabbit had died that afternoon; my sister ran crying to her room, and didn’t speak to me for days.
And no, we didn’t eat it.
Not if they’re wild! And yes, yum.
We didn’t have much in the way of wild rabbit where I lived, Just jackrabbits. And I didn’t know anybody who ate jacks.
'Cept coyotes. And other dogs.
Warning: Complete guessing follows.
Rabbit meat was a staple food for many rural people, not to mention people such as German immigrants for whom rabbit dishes were ‘a taste of home’. After WWII more people started moving to cities and suburbs. I was watching a show on beer where one guy said something to the effect of 'in the ‘50s supermarkets you had one kind of bread, three kinds of cheese, and three brands of beer.’ I’m guessing that in those days people wanted beef, pork, and chicken. If they wanted rabbit they’d have to go to a butcher’s. Rabbit became a ‘specialty meat’. When I lived in L.A. I’d have to go to the corner butcher for rabbit, and even duck was a seasonal thing in the supermarket. I think people just got out of the habit of eating rabbit.
As a teen I attempted to make Hasenpfeffer once. I didn’t like it. I’d never had it before, and I don’t know if it’s because I made it badly or if I just didn’t like the dish. So I stuck to fried rabbit (like chicken) with rabbit white gravy and mashed potatoes. The couple across the street raised rabbits. Handy.
Loads of wild rabbits here but I think when myxamatosis came along people stopped eating them or a bit before that. You can still get rabbit in certain restaurants.
If you do get around to trying it, and the rabbit you’re cooking is a modern, mass-produced frozen factory rabbit, it will indeed taste pretty much “just like chicken”. It’s all white meat, has a very mild flavor.
I once had “real” rabbit back in the 1960s as a child. It was farm-raised, not wild, but not mass-produced. It definitely had a real “rabbit” taste that was quite different from chicken.
So then as an adult, when I bought some rabbit at Kroger, and desired to introduce my children to the rabbit experience, I was faintly disappointed that it didn’t taste like the “rabbit” I remembered.
So anyway, the point is, don’t get yourself all pumped up about trying rabbit for the first time if it’s out of Kroger’s freezer, 'cause it’s not the same.
That’s because they’re just little nancy-boy, garden-destroying, hopping rats. They deserve to be eaten just for that. Luckily, they’re delicious, too. Actually, you don’t have to kill your own; there’s a guy up the road who sells hay, tomatoes, and rabbits (dead or alive). I just love defenseless, furry little animals, especially in a tasty sauce.
No. Raised in Texas, I’ve eaten a lot of Rabbit Stew. It’s quite yummy and IMHO doesn’t taste like chicken.
I grew up eating wild hare (lièvre) and farm raised rabbit on a weekly basis. Tasty stuff. My favorite dish growing up was my dad’s tarragon/mustard rabbit stew. Still is.
Damn that stuff is tasty. It was what I requested, every year, for my birthday dinner from the age of three onward.
I had rabbit (Coniglio) at a cafe in Bologna, Italy. It was delicious - the taste was somewhat like chicken, but the texture was much firmer.
I have shot and eaten lots of rabbits and I have also had rabbits as inside pets. They are cute but you have to make a rabbit be a pet before it matters. However, my father got Rabbit Fever by cleaning one and that is a very serious disease. His temperature topped 105 degrees at one point and other symptoms required days of hospitalization. He still shoots and eats them though.
Funny thing is, non cage, or “free range” chicken also tastes quite different from most store bought, processed chicken. So did the chickens we raised when I was a kid.
It tastes “chickenier”.
Not just to rear: they’re a lot of work in the kitchen, if you want to take the time to break down and debone the body. Someone who is familiar only with the skeletal structure of poultry will find the rabbit’s anatomy quite idiosyncratic and challenging.
But yeah, delicious, if you get a good one. I had slow-roasted wild rabbit in Italy. OMG.
I ate a lot of rabbit as a teenager; haven’t had rabbit since then. I remember rabbit as being very tasty but I can’t describe it. There was one cafe in my hometown that often served rabbit at lunch.
I’ve had rabbit roasted with a mustard and bread crumb crust, prepared by a couple from France. They also slow cooked (in the oven) a couple rabbits in a sauce in one of those big heavy roasters popular in french cooking.
French food is good. as is italian.
I think it’s the same reason people don’t eat a lot of duck or lamb. Most people want to stick with familiar meats like beef, chicken, pork, and turkey.