I refuse to eat anything we ever had as a pet. Includes rabbits, ducks, dogs, cats, g-pig, and turtle.
Posted on 08/07/2005 5:57:53 PM PDT by BulletBobCo
WEST HAVEN, Vt. (AP) -- Talk about culinary irony -- rabbit meat is in short supply.
Despite the critters' proclivity to reproduce, demand for rabbit meat has surged in recent years and breeders are struggling to supply the many trendy restaurants adding it to their menus.
"We could easily be doing 1,000 a week. The demand is there,'' says Langis Anctil, whose Champlain Valley Rabbitry farm in West Haven, Vt., is working full tilt to raise that many bunnies a month.
Of course, it's not that rabbits don't reproduce fast enough -- it's just an 11-week cycle from birth to broiler. The problem is that there aren't enough producers.
It's just a $10 million industry -- stitched mostly from a patchwork of small farms and hobbyists -- so small the government barely tracks it.
For restaurants such as Minibar, a posh tapas-style eatery in Los Angeles that offered a popular rabbit sausage since opening nearly two years ago, this has meant serious supply problems.
"We would find a purveyor with the product at the right price, but then they'd run out and we'd find another and then they would run out, and that's what it's been like for about eight months,'' says owner Ravel Centeno-Rodrigues.
"Finally, we took it off the menu.''
The number of producers has been in a steady decline since rabbit's heyday about 60 years ago. That's when a wartime meat shortage led the federal government to urge people to switch to rabbit, making it a common offering in grocers' meat cases. But as the supply of red meat and chicken improved, rabbit fell from favor.
Rabbit meat industry insiders blame its decline for so many years on an undeserved bad rap. Though farm-raised rabbit tastes like -- surprise! -- tender chicken, it has a reputation as a tough and gamey meat (likely because wild rabbit generally is).
The Easter Bunny syndrome -- a reluctance by many Americans to eat animals that are cute and fuzzy -- hasn't helped, either, according to Pat Lamar, president of the Professional Rabbit Meat Association.
But it seems the bad reputation is fading and fuzzy is becoming fabulous. Today, rabbit is in restaurants from Los Angeles to Portland, Maine.
In 2004, the United States imported more than 1 million pounds of rabbit meat -- mostly from China -- a near doubling from the year before, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Much of that is ending up in specialty shops and restaurants, which have begun serving rabbit in everything from North African tagines and mixed grill to smoked sausages and salads.
"Rabbit probably at one point was more risque than offal (innards),'' says Shea Gallante, chef at Cru, an upscale Mediterranean restaurant in New York that offers rabbit sausage with gnocchi.
"Nowadays it's so common people think, 'Do I have the rabbit appetizer or do I have the calf's heart?'''
Kate Krader, a senior editor at Food & Wine magazine, sees rabbit on menus everywhere and attributes the renewed interest to the growth in bistro-style restaurants, which focus on rustic fare, including wild game.
What's impressive about the growth is that unlike beef and pork, there is no marketing effort behind it, she said.
Part of the appeal is health. Rabbit is low in fat and cholesterol and high in protein. Americans also are traveling more widely and encountering rabbit on European menus, especially in France and Italy. And American chefs are ever on the watch for new tastes and textures.
As rabbit becomes more common in U.S. restaurants, Krader thinks it's likely to show up in more grocers, many of which already offer such exotics as ostrich and buffalo meat.
Rabbit now is common in specialty food shops in large cities, and is creeping into mainstream grocers. Publix supermarkets offers rabbit at 250 of its 800 stores in the Southeast.
The meat has not fared as well in the grocers in the Northeast, however, where poor sales recently prompted Hannaford Bros. Co. to pull it from the shelves of its 146 stores after five months.
Such setbacks haven't slowed the industry much. At Pel-Freez, the nation's largest rabbit meat processor, work once slowed to part time much of the year. Now it is all the Rogers, Ark., company can do to keep pace.
The hodgepodge nature of the industry complicates that. Because so many rabbit breeders are small-time farmers who go in and out of the business, companies such as Pel-Freez must constantly look for new suppliers.
It also isn't easy on the breeding end. Rabbits can have high mortality rates and a dearth of processors means many breeders must rely on so-called bunny runners to transport the animals to slaughter, sometimes many states away.
Anctil gets around that by processing his own rabbits -- snapping their necks, skinning and gutting them. Despite a steady stream of chefs and culinary students visiting his remote farm, he seems surprised by his success.
He only regrets that he can't keep the rabbits on his farm a bit longer, fattening them up a bit more. He slaughters them when they reach 23/4 or 3 pounds. The market just won't wait longer.
"They move so fast we don't have time to get them bigger,'' he says.
Tell her its lamb.
1 .22 per 1.5-3.0lbs. of meat (depending upon the species}. If you git er done right!
Whassat, saucis a lappin? Receipe?
Hasenpfeffer.
Yum.
Well to some of us they were good old days. Remember your "day " is coming too. BTW she didn't do much for me when I read the articles when the issue first came out.
Nonsense.
fry up several pieces of chopped bacon or salt pork.
brown the rabbit well in the bacon and grease.
remove the rabbit pieces and deglaze the pan with a nice white wine.
add to the pan lots of dijon mustard and a bit of ranch dressing.
add the rabbit and simmer for 15 min.
serve with a squeeze of lemon juice and capers with the dijon/ranch gravy, capers and black pepper on top.
Mmmmmmm.....
The front legs are the best!!
LOL! *grin*
Rodentia: the incisors keep growing, hence the need to gnaw...
Lagomorphae: they don't. Luckey huh since they have two pairs.
Re: Revenge of the Lupus
Hey, a reality check. Rabbits, ducks, chickens (the cute babies they sell at Easter and fairs) do nothing but eat, sleep and shit with an emphasis on shit. You haven't a clue what a "bunch" of rabbits will deposit on your linoleum. Note to self: Buy a minimum 3500PSI pressure washer, and 100 gals. of Clorox when I buy my breeding pairs.
Remember a time not so long ago, when we were told how we were switching to leaner meats such as ostrich, emu, and buffalo meat because it was blah, blah, blah .. thus it was the new rave.. I didn't by it then, and I don't see any reason to believe it now with rabbit.. If it tastes like chicken, then give me chicken.. :)
I don't think radiohead will care much for the smell. I have two bunnies now and we work constantly to make sure we manage the smell from only two rabbits.
Between the special bedding, special water, baths, cage cleanings, and smell good spray, we have plenty of work just caring for two. I can't imagine the magnitude of the odor from a room full of rabbits with nothing but linoleum on the floor.
We really love the rabbits. If we didn't, we would not put ourselves through all that work.
I make a killer rabbit stew.
Special water?
While I admit a roomful of rabbits might smell, our 1 rabbit rarely got to the smelly point as she was trained to use kitty litter.
Meat rabbits? They don't take up much space. :)
I used to buy buffalo meat whenever my local Safeway store offered it a couple of times a year....Not bad at all. Tried ostrich once, was not impressed. Anyone have any idea how many people got taken in by the big ostrich/emu farming craze some years ago? At least a breeding pair of bunnies for meat will not set you back thousands.
Saddle of Rabbit
with Chicken Mousse and Black Pudding
In this recipe, I assume you have already skinned and prepared the fillets - or asked your famously friendly butcher to do it for you. The joints can be used for rabbit with prunes.
Serves 4
• the fillets of 2 saddles of rabbit, all skin and bones removed
• 160 g chicken breast
• 250 g black pudding, cubed
• 1 small egg-white
• 160 ml double cream
• half red pepper, deseeded, skinned and diced
• 12 thin slices Parma ham butter
• seasoning
For the sauce:
• 1 rasher bacon, chopped
• 1 leek, finely chopped
• half bottle white wine
• 170 ml brandy
• 200 ml chicken stock
• 60 g butter
• 1 dessertspoon redcurrant jelly
• 175 ml double cream
• seasoning
Oven 220ºC/425ºF
Start by making the mousse. Process the chicken breast, add the egg-white and then carefully 'pulse' in the cream. Pass the mixture through a sieve, a spoonful at a time and chill it for half an hour. Meanwhile, sear the black pudding - very briefly and rapidly - in a little butter; drain and cool it on kitchen paper. When it is cool, fold it into the mousse mixture, with the red pepper and chill it again, for another hour or until really firm.
Spread 3 slices of Parma ham on a sheet of buttered tinfoil, 28 cm square (1), and lay the rabbit fillets, parallel, on top. Season. Spoon the mousse down the centre (2) and fold the ham up around the edges and the ends, making a long sausage of each rabbit. Roll each up in foil, like a cracker (3), and leave them in the fridge to become firm. Roast all 3 sausages in a roasting tin, to which you have added a little water, for about 30 minutes.
To make the sauce, soften the leek and bacon in 20 g butter then add the wine and 120 ml brandy. Bring it to the boil and reduce it to a third, then add the stock and reduce again to a third. Finally add the cream, the redcurrant jelly and the rest of the brandy. Simmer it for a further 5 minutes before passing it through a fine sieve and beating in the last of the butter. Serve the rabbit with buttered tagliatelle and baby leeks.
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