aprehensions eating rabbit ???

[JR1960]

There are hundreds if not thousands of children that couldn't tell you where beef or bacon comes from and you think they are going to grow up to eat Rabbit?

 

My kids have been brought up alongside these kids, but i've always tried to teach tnem better than that and my son now shoots and can't wait to butcher, cook amd eat what he's shot. Both of them have a healthy respect for where their food comes from and the fact that something had to die to produce what they are about to eat.

 

Unfortunately the missus suffers from fluffy bunny syndrome and won't touch anything that doesn't come hermetically sealed. She won't even eat the fish we catch but she'll eat Captain Birdseye's finest. Pathetic!

 

Anyway in answer to the original question it was definitely myxie that caused the decline in rabbit being eaten, my old man used to work on the railway in the 50s and 60s and he used to tell me that when it first appeared they had to shovel the dead, dying and rotten corpses off the tracks in the cuttings so the trains could get through! The rabbit population was huge in those days and a lot more people worked in the countryside and would have been exposed to a similar spectacle. My old man loved rabbit but never had another taste of one until the day he died. I suspect most people were the same and thus it died out as a source of food and hasn't been accepted since, the fluffy bunny brigade would have it on a par with eating your pet dog nowadays so the chances of it making a comeback soon are remote. Still, all the more for me!

[bullet boy]

We went to a BBQ last weekend . And took some bunnie sausages with us.

The only person who knew what they were was the person manning the food.

We can away with about four orders for bunnie sausages and burgers.

We know for the fact if we had told people before they ate then.

That they were rabbit No one would have tried then.

We have also found that people will turn their nose up at Venison.

xxxxsuzy

 

Good on you Suz-IF THEY DONT TRY IT THEY`LL NEVER KNOW WHATS ITS LIKE!

[Admiral Von Tirpitz]

Think its definately the "bunny rabbit" element that puts a lot off, but also some people see it as paupers food, which again tends to put them off. However I spotted it on a menu in a upmarket brasserie recently, titled Saddle of Rabbit, on a bed of mash, some vegatables, but written in fancy terms, all for £17.50, seems if the price is hiked up, demand also meets it.

 

I think people would be put off chicken, if they knew what it looked like after a year stuck in a battery farm.

[SA1Gunner]

People associate the little bunny rabbit as something cute and cudly, it doesn't see it as an excellent food group like most of us do, just thinking about a rabbit slowly cooked glazed in some honey, my mouth is watering.

[TuftySnuffer]

Well yes I see your point!

 

Kinda reminds me of the spitting image sketch where HRH the duke of Edinburgh has got a soft cuddly bunny glove puppet for our future king, then in his pram to play with.

 

"Here comes Mr Bunny......"

 

All you see next is a double barrel coming out of the pram, blowing the rabits head off and HRH the Duke of Edinburgh shouting

 

"Good shot young chap!"

 

Too many people see it as the cute cuddly animal you keep in a cage and not as food.

 

I'm with the kid on the pram - Bunny is good to eat!

 

Cheers

 

Tufty

[Mrs Sweepy]

During the war my dear old granddad was a bunny farmer.

My dad has the pic of him and his brother standing in front of these rows and rows of hutches.

Full of bunnies.

He did very well out of the business. And after the war he bought more land with some of the profits .Which in the early 90s was sold . For a very tidy sum

So in the way bunnies have made Mrs Sweepys family very very happy indeed.

xxxxsuzy

 

 

 

 

 

 

ps my dad and his brother wont touch rabbit now .

[Billy the Kid]

yes, ive read that too....not sure id like to though.....

i guess mixy put alot of folk off it..... but other meats have had nasty health scares, bse, avian flue. etc..and people know the rancid condition some chickens and eggs come from.... but they still scoff em down....

rabbit seems to me, totally organic and completly free range, what more could you want.....?

 

i just wondered what happened to rabbit to make it fall from favour as a delicious meal to something some people cant even imagine eating ?

 

everyone my dads age or over, say they used to have it alot, and loved it, some older folk have told me how when they were a child they got the head ! and ate the brains out with a spoon like a chucky egg !!!!!!!!!!!!!! well, im not gonna try that, but the meat is fantastic...

maybe hugh fernley or someone should do an eat healthy, eat rabbit campaighn... like he did with the chickens !!

 

any other idea's what happened to buggs ??

 

 

Eating the brains out of the head with a spoon..... methinks someones been pulling your leg there

 

Imo rabbit meat will come back into "fashion" its meat is clear of any additives,hormones etc, its lean and rabbits are not stupid they only eat the best as any farmer will tell you. A 3/4 grown young rabbit pan fried takes some beating far better than supermarket chicken.

 

In a year or two Tescos will have it on the shelf, the reason the heads were left on at the butchers is to confirm its rabbit and not cat

 

When you see wild rabbit on the menu try it, you will go back for more.

 

D2D

[Billy the Kid]

Rabbit brain delicous,not much of it but the taste & texture is like a divine pate,next time you braise a bunny do the head as well,you won't be disappointed.

 

Billy

[Gonna Shoot a Wabbit]

My family on mums side used to farm in lincolnshire until the 70's.

 

It was definitely myxy that put people off rabbits. My grandad used to susidise his farm income selling rabbits in boston market, it stopped being profitable with the arrival of myxy.

 

If people get the chance to try rabbit they are usually converted but now i think it is a case of overcomeing the fluffy bunny syndrome.

[cjw]

Rabbit brain delicous,not much of it but the taste & texture is like a divine pate,next time you braise a bunny do the head as well,you won't be disappointed.

 

Billy

 

someone,s pulling our plonker me thinks who the **** eats rabbit brain .

[peter-peter]

rabbit is cracking meat. so is white rat.

if you are hungry you will eat owt.

I would have no qualms about eating next doors moggy, in fact its a good idea.

so what have you lot eaten.

I have eaten.

rabbits

hare, ( not too keen on that one)it stinks even after its cooked.

white rat.

sparrows before they got protected.

pewits.

rooks,

all the game birds but i'm not keen on grouse.

pig trotters and heads.

sheep heads.

I love tripe and cow heel.

hav'nt tried squirrel yet.

frogs legs.

snails.

anything out of the sea especially oysters.

I would say if you hav'nt tried it go for it you might be supprised

[myzeneye]

good effort peter.... ive started another thread asking why no one eats fox ? i think seen as you seem the most adventurous here, you should try it and give us the verdict !!

 

cjw... no ones yanking any cranks here mate... people do eat the brains.... i think in the war days, people who wernt to well of, wouldnt waste anything... and to be fair, if old alf tells me he used to love eating the brains, then thats what he used to do. he asked me if id nail him a brace next time im over his way.... i wont be joining him for that delacacy though ! i love rabbit, but im not one for organs, heads or brains....

[peter-peter]

when i was a lad I worked for a local butcher for a while

making pies and sausage et'c

for the potted meat we boiled beast heads took the tongue out first. pigs and sheep heads the lot went in

boiled till it came of the bone then minced and potted it brains and all. seasoned with bags of salt and black pepper.

bootiful

I wouldn't eat fox or crow they eat all sorts of ****.

Edited October 4, 2008 by peter-peter

[myzeneye]

when i was a lad I worked for a local butcher for a while

making pies and sausage et'c

for the potted meat we boiled beast heads took the tongue out first. pigs and sheep heads the lot went in

boiled till it came of the bone then minced and potted it brains and all. seasoned with bags of salt and black pepper.

bootiful

I wouldn't eat fox or crow they eat all sorts of ****.

 

thats rich coming from you pete !!! ha ha ha

[JR1960]

i guess mixy put alot of folk off it..... but other meats have had nasty health scares, bse, avian flue. etc..and people know the rancid condition some chickens and eggs come from.... but they still scoff em down....

 

Yeah, true, but people don't see hideously disfigured animals crawling down the road and rotting carcasses everywhere nowadays do they, it's all sanitised. I suspect if they had featherless diseased chickens and cows stumbling about in the street it might have more of an effect and there are lods of checks (supposedly) to stop any infection getting into the food chain nowadays too. How could you be absolutely certain you weren't eating an infected bunny before the symptoms start to show?.

 

Anyway, i know one of Bernard Matthew's family and i think they'd disagree that bird flu didn't put anyone off, they've lost millions over the last couple of years since they had their bird flu contamination.

Edited October 4, 2008 by JR1960

[MM]

Last season I found a farm shop through a local keeper and I couldn't keep up with the demand and it got embarrassing.

 

I have delivered 65 scuts, gutted, skinned, anal glands removed on a Monday morning @ £1.50 a piece and they were calling me asking for more on the Wednesday

 

A award winning butcher near Canterbury had scuts in the window in fur at £6.50 last season.

 

If I had the time, and a good team, to do this 5 days a week there would be a living to be made form this especially if we could long net at night.

 

It may not be in the supermarket top ten but it is definitely selling well in rural areas and farmers markets in affluent areas

 

 

 

 

LB

 

 

:o :o

what wally would pay that much for a rabbit that is hung in a window as the butcher has an award. the guy next door would be getting them from the same shooter, and flogging them at half the price. does my head in this.

 

 

now, if we are talking about meat, the best, most loved meat i can ever imagine, is lambs hearts, braised with mint sauce followed by a big slab of liver, with real chips, proper onion gravy, not that bisto ****.

[fishman307]

For me it all started with the INTRODUCTION of Myxy, It had such a devastating effect (wich nobody forsaw) That english rabbit became VERY rare, An awfull lot for the table was imported from singapore and it was absolute ****, Non of the older generation would touch/buy the imported stuff. It now seems english rabbit never made a real comeback.

[JR1960]

now, if we are talking about meat, the best, most loved meat i can ever imagine, is lambs hearts, braised with mint sauce followed by a big slab of liver, with real chips, proper onion gravy, not that bisto ****.

Stop it....

[seisobs]

Yup I like rabbit.

Here's an interesting one though, I work on a research vessel and am currently working on a prospect off Kangean Island Indonesia, the ships crew are from the Philippines, China, Malasia, Indonesia and Singapore. The filipino's love eating dog! Chinese Cat and dog! Malasians and Indonesians will eat anything that moves or swims - Singaporeans like noodles!!!

[Highlander]

I blame Walt *****y Disney!

 

I’ve sat with a group of French Escoffier’s eating Jugged Hare BUT they’d left the heads on top, skinned but complete with eyes, tongue and brains. This was the delicacy before the feast; spooning out the brains, scooping out the eyes and pulling out the tongue. After which I didn’t have much of an appetite for the rest!

[peter-peter]

in the late 40s my father had a rabbit farm with over 50 breeders,

we kept a breed called belgian hares they where big and tender

we cured the pelts and my mother made a few bob selling fur back gloves.

by the time mixie came along we had stopped breeding.

I shot a lot or rabbits pet week, and supplied local butchers and a cafe.

then mixie came (disaster)

the government said you could eat mixie rabbits. no fear.

the shops started selling vetenary inspected rabbits from china they where superb.

but they stopped coming in when mixie died away.

sainsburies sold rabbit saddles and boned rabbit it was superb tasting.

I still love rabbit today and cook it with shin beef shallots wild mushrooms and beer.

god i am hungry again.

[Horrocks]

Rabbit eating goes beack way beyond the war years, its only become less popular since then. IT wasnt just popular becuase of the rationing.....

[myzeneye]

horrocks mate, the threads about why people stopped eating rabbit....not when they started.... although if cooked poorly , you could have started chewing pre war and still be gnawing away on the same mouth full today !!!!

i see your point mate, people have always eaten it... but why is it unpopular today ?

main answer given is myx'y.... and stupidness....

[njc110381]

The reason I don't like it is simple. I messed up the gutting on the first one I ever tried and tainted the meat (I was about 8 at the time and snared it). Since then, my butchering skills have improved but I still can't deal with the smell or taste of bunny

 

I've tried everything. Salting and soaking, putting it in hot curry to hide the flavour, everything I can think of to make me want to eat it. I hate waste, but I have to be honest and say that most of my bunnies go to the Fox.

 

I read a post on the Airgun forum that has given me another idea. It seems to me that the most flavour is in the legs, and I always manage to get a good way through a meal before being stopped in my tracks by a piece of leg meat! I'm going to try taking the saddles, kind of like breasting a Pigeon really, but with Rabbit.

 

A link to the post...

 

OOPS! Members only area, sorry!

Edited October 8, 2008 by njc110381

[rabbithunter2008]

Your link not working right :blink:

 

Talking about rabbits with my parents the other week and my granddad was a butcher and he had loads of them for breeding.

 

Both of them loved it and want more.

 

My son keeps saying when can he have rabbit stew

 

He's 8 and wants to come out with the ferret and he want to know whats it all about