A while back I took a fleeting interest in rabbit. I recall reading it's super sustainable. Bought some at HMart and did some sort of tradtional mustardy recipe and wasn't impressed. As mentioned in a recent thread D'Artagnan products are increasing their presence in my local supermarkets and I saw (pricey) rabbit loins. Probably less pricey than the gas needed to get to HMart but I haven't been tempted. I'll be interested in others' thoughts and recipes.

Back years ago they used to have rabbit at the big groceries, haven't seen it for years. We had a neighbor who raised them and would kill and butcher one for anyone who wanted it. My German MIL cooked it often but I've never cooked it. I've been told that the rabbit manure is the best for use in vegetable gardens other than worm castings, so you would think that the non-vegan organic gardeners would would want to get into the business just for that. We have the room to do it but I'm afraid I'm too citified to kill anything. I don't have a problem cooking and eating an animal but I have to let someone else do the dirty work. I know, I'm a hypocrite. :(

Rabbits breed like, er, rabbits. In settled areas like my own backyard, they have few natural predators left, so they multiply exponentially unless we step in to do the job. Otherwise they eventually starve. They can destroy massive amounts of vegetation, so, ironically, if they ever got completely out of control we'd have no more vegetarians. Unfortunately rabbits have become the latest trendy protest cause du jour. There are gaggles of tragic hipsters and earnest looking Montessori moms waving hilarious bunny signs out in front of Whole Foods near me. I like to give them recipes. Maybe I should also hand them some brochures about the Java rhino, which unlike the rabbit actually is endangered, but it's nose isn't quite as cute.

By contrast, beef eating will save the world, at least if it's mostly grass fed. Forget all the tired PETA slogans. Go google carbon fixing in soil, and discover the wonder that herds of animals wandering over the land can do. Pretty amazing, actually.

My favorite recipe is Patricia Wells's rabbit with mustard. Delicious and simple.

I really enjoy duck. It's what I usually order when we go out to a nicer restaurant. It is available at both of our local grocery stores but I do not cook it at home. Duck is also higher in fat than I want to eat several times per month even though I am not fat-phobic. For instance, I make pie crust and biscuits with leaf lard. Maybe, I could make a duck pot pie to add to our normal meal rotation and just buy duck breast. Still, DH says it is too rich for him and probably will not eat it at all.

Rabbit? Never had rabbit. I do not like mustard so nothing mentioned so far sounds good, to me.

We have been reducing our meat consumption over the past few years both because of my illness and due to switching to grass fed/organic/free-range, etc. and the associated additional cost. We have both reached a point where a large portion size is off-putting. We will most likely stick to eating less meat of all types.

/tricia

I raise beef, so you know where my opinion lies. We ranch in dry land country, where there is very little irrigation, and water and grass management is mandatory. The argument I have heard the most is it take less water to raise a pound of tomatoes than it does a pound of beef. Trust me when I say, you are not going to be cultivating many tomato plants where I am.

The one real negative to rabbit is there is no fat on it. People who eat a diet of mostly rabbit will get really sick if they don't supplement it with foods containing fats.

I would much rather eat duck. Love duck. That is if I only have a choice between rabbit or duck.

All I've seen when trying to learn about general agricultural impact are the infamous lies, danged lies and statistics (which when done by my favorite master statisticians are quite meaningful, but which are generally lies because even many of the people whose work depends on them, do it wrong).

I do know that manure is good for depleted land. I do know that it's easier to move cattle to where the water is than corn. I do know that most of the people who count up these things use other people's unvetted numbers and generally don't account for water management (which is becoming dire with climate change) and tilth. If you only count food in and methane out, you miss most of the picture.

While other people are decreasing their meat consumption, I'm so trying to up mine! I never was a big meat eater, and even when I was mostly vegetarian, I did eat what other people served and occasionally sought out beef for the iron (easier to get than dark green leafies at that place and time). I keep trying high protein vegetable products, but they're not adequate for what I need to eat.

Still, this is another topic upon which I might conveniently start keeping kosher. My sense of eew icky comes not from the cuddly furballishness of a bunny (steers are cute, too, in their way) , but from a bred in cultural prohibition that might bend to accept modern (disease free) swine in a pinch, but screams in my ear that ducks are food and rabbits are not.

Rabbit is very lean. And if easily available, it would have a book of recipes.
Much more common 50yrs ago. Chefs like it and duck as it is more interesting to create detailed dishes rather than a common chicken.
The ducks we rotissed Thanksgiving keep on giving. The quart of fat, stock, cassoulet last night, confit, duck tacos, brunch of mandolin potatoes, layer of dressing topped with cracked eggs this morning. It was a good choice this year.

A sustainable farm has a loop. Field fed beef cattle, pig, goat for milk and cheese, chicken and maybe rabbit. A good veg crop. Feeds itself. But i'm not that well versed, just some reading, not studied. I find the discussions interesting.

Rabbitry 101: Mark Pasternak on Raising Backyard Bunnies
"If you are already raising chickens-raising rabbits on a small-scale would be really easy," he says. Pasternak suggests that the average DIY farmer should start out with one male (buck) and three does (female). He advises against having more than one male at a time because adult male rabbits are aggressive and territorial. A rabbit's gestation period is extremely short, only 30 days from conception to birth. Consequently, if you mated one buck and three does, you could have up to six litters a year, but four litters is much more likely. Each doe should deliver anywhere from six to 10 bunnies. With three does, Pasternak reckons you could supply yourself with a substantial supply of meat over a year.Pasternak has three basic rules for the urban homesteader:
Be careful not to have too many female rabbits breeding at the same time.
Dispatch the offspring before they are old enough to reproduce (three months).
Make sure you have a lot of rabbit recipes. (See Chris Kronner)

-I've tried rabbit without much success. It needs duck fat and a restaurant might have available tricks to up the flavor. Braising and mustard might help. A friends Manhattan restaurant used to rotisserie on their wood fired spit behind the wine bar and had to stop because patrons though they looked like kitties roasting...haha
As a single source of easily raised meat protein she might have a point. Easily skinned unlike chickens. Fed kitchen scraps...
My SIL and family raise goats for milk and cheese, and rabbits...we never get excited for a family meal of rabbit...but they are not good passionate adventurous cooks...their
cheeses are good but not outstanding.

We're not white meat fans, so rabbit to me is bland, and to my DH has a slight bitter aftertaste he doesn't care for. We both love duck, OTOH, and share a passion for offal.

But it all takes second place to beef. We are devoted carnivores :) !

One of the few restaurants where I'll order rabbit is Etoile @Domaine Chandon Winery in Yountville (Napa Valley) CA. Chef Perry Hoffman does a roulade - leg/thigh/liver made into a sausage stuffing, wrapped in breast meat - accompanied by a "rack" of the chops.

It was the tiniest, cutest rack of chops I've ever seen. The bones were not much thicker than toothpicks! Despite that, the meat was juicy and tender.

Sous vide would be the way to go with rabbit, as it works well with lean meats.

Hi - both are delicious, but rabbit is def. leaner than duck. Rabbit is white meat & duck is dark, IME.

I too, remember buying boxes of frozen cut up rabbit for cheap @ the grocery stores here, back in the day - now it is ridiculously priced & hard to find. So is duck w/o additives - & forget fresh.

Any prep for white meat chicken/poultry that doesn't dry out the meat would work w/ rabbit, I think. I used to simply saute in butter/marg. w/ some spices & lemon juice.

I thought about this when looking at a price list for a local place.

Roaster rabbits $6.50/lb and Pekin duck $4.60/lb. Compares well to organic chicken, not that I usually buy organic chicken. But minimum order $175 so I'll go to the Chinese market unless and until we become converts.

I am personally fine with beef and chicken, and love pork. I just don't eat the mass quantities of protein that I used to. Smaller portions are my thing now.

But since Daughter san is advocating rabbit I thought I'd have one ready to cook on her next visit home.

I think I first made mustard sauce rabbit after marcolo gave me the recipe. It doesn't taste like mustard.

Just because a rabbit starts lean doesn't mean it has to stay that way. :) You can always go French on it. This sounds like the kind of dish that predates coq au vin.

Or go Spanish, and make a paella. Away from the coast, it's rabbit that is the traditional star. Throw in a woodcock or pheasant. :) Vegetables, beans, tomatoes, garlic, saffron rosemary, rice. Go really authentic and add a few snails. :)

DH's Grandmother fixed rabbit every Sunday, breaded and fried just like chicken with gravy over it. It was mighty tasty. I tried fixing it once. Obviously she had some special ingredient or technique she never shared because mine was AWFUL. I have never tried since, it was such a waste of food.
Edie

Forgot I gave that to you!

The other obvious choice is the most common Italian preparation: braised in wine and rosemary, served with pappardelle.

I 've just googled and there are thouands of recipe out there.

Rabbit can be substituted for chicken in most recipes; just remember it is a little leaner than chicken so it benefits from moist cookery. Also, it does well when browned then pressure cooked.

One of my favorite ways to cook rabbit is 'en gibelotte'--a French term which I think means a meat cooked in white wine. This recipe is from the NY Times International Cookbook by Craig Claiborne. (By the way, that came out in 1971, and it's out of print and somewhat dated, but it's readily available used for a few bucks) The only change I might make is the very last step: don't add all 3 tablespoons of Dijon mustard all at once, but do it one tbsp. at a time to taste.

Lapin en Gibelotte (French Rabbit Stew)

½ pound salt pork, cut in thin slices or small cubes
2 young rabbits, 3 to 3 ½ pounds each, cut up into serving pieces
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
12 small white onions, peeled
1 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
3 cloves garlic
½ teaspoon dried thyme
¼ cup all purpose flour
2 cups dry white wine
1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
1 can chicken broth, 13 ¼ oz
2 bay leaves
Butter
3 tablespoons dijon mustard

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Place salt pork in saucepan, add enough water to cover, bring to a boil and simmer five minutes. Drain and reserve.

Place the drained pork in a Dutch oven or heavy casserole and cook over moderate heat, turning to brown on all sides. Remove the pork pieces and reserve.

Sprinkle the rabbit pieces with salt and pepper. Reserve the rabbit livers (you’ll be using them later on). Brown the rabbit pieces (a few at a time) in the dutch oven. When all the pieces are browned, add the onions and mushrooms and cook briefly. Return the rabbit pieces to the dutch oven and continue to cook while preparing the rest of the recipe.

Chop together the garlic and thyme and add to the meat. Stir gently with a wooden spoon to distribute the seasonings. Sprinkle with the flour, stirring with the spoon to distribute the flour evenly. Bake for fifteen minutes, uncovered. Add the wine, tomato paste, chicken broth, and bay leaves. Stir to distribute the liquid.

Cover and bake for one hour. Then add the bits of salt pork you browned earlier.

Cook the rabbit livers on both sides in a little butter. Add the livers to the dutch oven, cover, and continue to bake for thirty minutes or longer. (About now you’ll want to start cooking some noodles or rice or potatoes or couscous; the sauce is yummy, and you’ll want to have something to soak up the sauce)

Scoop out a cup of the sauce and stir the mustard into it. Blend well, then return the mustard mixture to the sauce. Stir to blend. Simmer briefly and serve piping hot with freshly cooked buttered noodles.

Irrespective of which one you decide to make, this, clearly, is the beverage you should serve with it.

I second @marcolo's recommendation -- in a ragu it really is wonderful.

When we were growing up, my sister was allergic to chicken. We ate rabbit --> fried chicken style! Not very fancy, but yes, the frying compensates for the natural leanness. Yes, "tastes like chicken", except for images of Thumper when you are eight years old.

This post was edited by gooster on Mon, Dec 1, 14 at 16:52

Rabbit is highly sustainable, of course, and higher in protein than pretty much anything else. As mentioned, a person could die of protein poisoning eating too much rabbit.

Rabbits are prolific breeders. My Dad bought 3 rabbits at the stock sale when I was a child. We named them Salt, Pepper and Pete. Why? I don't know. Anyway, we put them all together into an old chicken coop. They had babies. The babies had babies. The babies' babies had babies. I sold rabbits, we ate rabbits, I gave rabbits away. Finally, we just opened the door and let them go. After a year we had 108 rabbits, and that doesn't include the ones we ate! When the boys hunt at the farm the rabbits are still spotted and brown and white and black, a potpourri of rabbit colors and breeds, LOL. So, they are also adaptable.

As you know, I raise grass fed beef and I agree that it is not the most sustainable choice, but I don't think it's nearly as bad as the doomsday predictions floating around either. Many cattle are raised on land that is unfit for any other purpose, irrigation of those places is often impossible or at least improbably and impossibly expensive. I think we just eat way too much beef, I've seen advertisements locally for 32 ounce Porterhouses, that's at least 6 or 8 servings for me, sheesh.

I like duck, and they are also easy to raise and relatively inexpensive to feed, but horrible to pluck, which is why I haven't raised them again.

So, do I prefer duck or rabbit? For me, it's a 50/50 decision, depending on my mood. Smoked rabbit is as good as any of the duck I've smoked, so if you have a smoker, that's a good option, IMO.

When I was a kid, we'd have rabbit fried occasionally, but more often in stew or "fricassee" which was basically a rabbit in gravy. It was also used regularly in a pot pie type dish, the rabbit and vegetables in gravy with a biscuit topping or in gravy over rice or mashed potatoes.

I like hasenpfeffer, with lots of garlic and spices, and baked, kind of like a pot roast, with various vegetables. Rabbit is so lean that it seems to do best with low and slow kind of braises and stews, or at least that's what happens in my kitchen.

Grandma used to make a kind of sauerbraten thing, I remember it had gingersnaps, but I've never been able to find the recipe or figure it out.

I'm still trying to figure out why more people don't eat goat. It's high in protein, low in fat and they eat nearly anything. A real PIA to keep in a fence, which is why I don't have one, but not hard to raise.

Annie

This post was edited by annie1992 on Mon, Dec 1, 14 at 22:56

I taught small animal husbandry and gardening at a Bible Institute in Mexico, for a little over 8 years. Rabbits were a mainstay of our production because they grew really well on alfalfa and corn, which we raised ourselves. The domestic rabbit was developed for culture in cages. I know that many are prejudiced against cages. But the rabbits themselves don't mind. Having each adult animal in its own cage allows one to control their breeding and maintain better hygiene, and thus protect the health of the does and, indeed of the entire rabbitry.

Someone above mentioned starting with a buck and two does. That is indeed the way to go. If one doe fails (and a certain percentage of them do, right from the start) then you are not out of completely out of production. More than two does will produce A WHOLE LOT of offspring, which may be more work than you want. Each will have at least four litters a year of an average of, say 7 kits. The kits reach butchering size in 12 weeks. A standard meat breed, such as California or New Zealand White, will yield a 2 1/2 to 3 lb carcass, dressed out, at that time. That is mainly meat. Their bones are quite light. So, in four months, from breeding, a doe can be responsible for the production of about 21 lb of meat. One of the beauties of rabbitry is that one could raise a whole lot of meat in a shed or garage, and neighbors might never even suspect. They do not stink. They do produce a lot of manure, but it is not smelly as manures go. It can be spread directly on gardens without hurting anything, as long as it doesn't carry urine in it.

Well fed domestic rabbit meat isn't all that lean. But it isn't marbled. The fat is easy to separate from the meat. I happen to like eating it, as it comes, on the carcass, when we roast it. Our favorite way to fix a rabbit, is roasted whole, like a whole chicken. Place the rabbit in a baking pan, sprinkle with lemon juice and salt and roast for about 1 1/2 hour at 350F. The meat should easily pull off the bones when fully cooked. After serving rabbit this way, the left overs can be picked from the bones and used in a stir fry or soup. We have frequent dinner guests and I cannot, in 20 years, think of anyone who didn't think that it was just wonderful. It is a white meat.

Anyone raising a few rabbits at home could fairly easily harvest weeds or grass to supplement their feed. Before teaching rabbitry at the Bible Institute, I raised rabbits in a more remote setting, where there were neither prefabricated cages nor commercial rabbit food. Our rabbits did fine on local weeds, cover crops and either whole kernel corn or stale tortillas for a carb. The domestic rabbit is the easiest of all animals to butcher and prepare. It is definitely the least messy.

Duck is another favorite of our family. Duck is all dark meat, which I dearly love. We raise Muscovy ducks, which are not nearly as fatty as other breeds. The Muscovy, is, in fact, from an entirely different species than other domestic breeds. Muscovies are wonderful foragers. Ours roam our pasture and pond, devouring insects, rodents and small reptiles. They lay eggs, easily twice the size of a regular chicken egg. Their eggs are delicious. I like to roast a duck exactly the way we roast rabbit. The meat is flavored like... duck, which we enjoy. Leftover duck makes WONDERFUL soups, stews and stir fries. Just be sure to cook it no higher than 350 F and for however long it takes for it to easily pull off the bones. Most of the fat in a Muscovy duck is in the skin. So it is easy to remove, if so desired.

Muscovies actually beat rabbits for exponential reproduction! As a homesteader, I find that my greatest challenge with them, is to keep them from producing too many ducklings. The wild reproduction seems great during the summer, when they are eating so much from foraging. But after a killing freeze, suddenly those cute ducks consume A LOT of expensive feed! They are also much more laborious to process than are rabbits.

The argument against beef is completely slanted, as a couple of people have already mentioned. Most places that raise beef have a drier climate and poorer soil than where the "anti beef people live." Somehow they seem to think that if ranchers didn't raise beef on their ranches, that those ranches would be converted to luxuriant gardens. But that is not the case. Believe me. I LOVE to garden, and have several nice sized vegetable gardens on our little farm. But I never cease to battle with rocks and constantly work at building tilth. After I have spent all available resources and energy to grow gardens, I still have a lot more than 90% of the property well suited for ruminants. We like to have a few cattle along with sheep and goats, as the three species do not eat exactly the same things. They actually produce better in a mixed herd.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Pllog, love your cartoon.
Lots of people here have them in cages for eating. They all seem quite happy and contented.

George, I have a question about the rabbits. Do you ever have a problem with rabbit fever? We have wild rabbits around here and they carry this disease. (I live in Central FL). This disease is transmitted to humans and can be deadly. Just wondering if it is an issue.

Rita, a quick google search brought up a couple of articles; a rabbit organization says that domestic rabbits do not carry tularemia, while another article says it's very rare in domestic rabbits. From what I understand, the domestic rabbit is a different species from the wild rabbit; they can't interbreed.

Bob Bennet's books on raising rabbits don't mention tularemia at all.

The link is to a section from the Merck veterinary manual. I didn't know that rabbits could get a variety of syphilis. I guess doing it like rabbits has a price.

Here is a link that might be useful: rabbit diseases

This post was edited by arley on Wed, Dec 3, 14 at 10:10

I agree with Arley. Sorry I didn't get back to you when you asked.

George