Rabbit How to!

[johnboe522]

This is a link to a blog on how to skin and butcher a Rabbit, I thought you might find useful.

Let me know what you think.

http://www.wildwaybushcraft.co.uk/skin-butcher-rabbit/

All the best

JB

 

[British Red]

Nice tutorial, if I can make one suggestion?

At one point you say

, you will need to kill it.
You will want to do this as quickly and as painlessly as possible, showing the utmost respect to the animal. You are aiming for a human dispatch

I hope you are aiming for a humane kill. If you are aiming for a human kill, you will need a bigger knife.

 

[johnboe522]

Nice tutorial, if I can make one suggestion?

At one point you say



I hope you are aiming for a humane kill. If you are aiming for a human kill, you will need a bigger knife.

Typo will change it now!! got to love predictive text!!

 

[British Red]

You might want to change spin to spine whilst you are in there

 

[johnboe522]

You might want to change spin to spine whilst you are in there

Beat you to it! Going to have to sack my proof reader! She's a school teacher as well!!

 

[Joonsy]

a really quick way to skin a rabbit is to take a pinch of skin on the rabbits back between the fingers and make a small cut through it with a knife, then place your fingers in the cut and pull in opposite directions with each hand, the skin will be torn in half though so it depends what you want to do with the skin afterwards but it is a very quick skinning method used by many game dealers/butchers, particulary on young rabbits.

 

[Macaroon]

Scent glands?................

 

[Hibrion]

I tend to push gut rabbits as I shoot them. It's quick, clean so you can pop them in a game pouch and continue shooting.

As for skinning: a small nick between the back legs, then peel the skin down to the head, twist and pull the head off with the skin all together. After that there are many different ways to prep the animal depending on how you want to cook it.

 

[widu13]

Scent glands?................

Many, many people haven't even heard of them never mind where they are or what they look like. Most people that have had Rabbit and report that it is disgusting have eaten rabbit cooked with the glands on. I've done 100s and just last week I forgot the glands and started to cook it and the smell was immediately noticeable. I was stewing so changed the water out and it was salvageable.

Why people don't know about it is beyond me.

 

[santaman2000]

Nice tutorial, if I can make one suggestion?

At one point you say



I hope you are aiming for a humane kill. If you are aiming for a human kill, you will need a bigger knife.

 

[Macaroon]

Many, many people haven't even heard of them never mind where they are or what they look like. Most people that have had Rabbit and report that it is disgusting have eaten rabbit cooked with the glands on. I've done 100s and just last week I forgot the glands and started to cook it and the smell was immediately noticeable. I was stewing so changed the water out and it was salvageable.

Why people don't know about it is beyond me.

Too true mate, it's the difference between Gourmet and KFC to me, I just couldn't even consider eating one which hasn't had them removed, and it's why most people new to rabbit say "yughhhh! Too strong!"

Still, all the more for us, eh?

 

[Robbi]

Where are the scent glands and what do they look like ?

Got any pictures ?

 

[widu13]

With



Without

 

[Macaroon]

http://www.rabbitsonline.net/f22/scent-glands-49871/

This is a guide for those who keep 'em as pets, but it explains and shows it all

 

[Robbi]

Aha ! Thanks guys.

 

[johnboe522]

I have now added it to the blog, I cut the anus, unspent droppings and the glands out with a V cut just before removing the rear legs. Sorry for the omission if it confused anyone. Thats what comes with typing at midnight!

At least people are more aware of them now!!

 

[Macaroon]

Easily done, and that's now a good guide to anybody wanting to get started............Nice one

 

[Joonsy]

one small thing, particulary if you want to present someone with a couple of rabbits in the skin for eating. After they are killed and their bladder has been emptied its best to allow the rabbit to cool before gutting, in the winter months this will only take a short while but longer in warmer weather. Inspect the rabbits at any market or butchers and you will immediately see the difference between rabbits that have been allowed to cool before gutting and those that have not, the cooled ones will be lovely and clean inside their cavity with pink flesh and the fat around the kidneys will be clean and white, those that have been gutted without allowing for cooling will be bloody inside their cavity and the fat around their kidneys will look scruffy and discolured. I am not talking about hanging but 'cooling' which only takes half an hour or so. Many years ago i did a lot of rabbit catching and in those days it was important to present the rabbit well, though that seems to have gone out of fashion with the rabbit catchers of today.

 

[rabbitrex]

You may be interested in this, my old blog about how I raised some rabbits for meat and fur. I've stopped doing it now but saying that... I have some baby NSW bunnies at the moment that just aren't selling as pets... http://rexrabbits.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/starting-out.html

 

[Adze]

NSW bunnies

Are they naked?

I'd always assumed, until now, that your nickname was something to do with expeditions in the Holy Land... just shows the value of casing and punctuation I suppose