In our society today, we are so disconnected from our food. We don’t grow it. We don’t know people who grow it. Maybe we go to a farmers market, but we don’t really know the farmers. The Local Voluntary is all about changing that, but that is a topic for another post.
As far as meat goes, we don’t know people who process and butcher our meat. We have been led to believe that faceless corporations should do these jobs. But they don’t do it very well. Chickens are intentionally fed all sorts of drugs and even arsenic to increase their butcher weight. Some cattle farms even feed cattle junk food and candy because ice cream sprinkles only cost $160 a ton (and they talk about that like it’s a good thing.) And there is the constant threat of GMO.
Today I attended a workshop on how to humanely dispatch and process rabbit for food. The workshop was hosted by hostilehare.com. And it was excellent.
It was a surreal experience. I did not grow up around farm animals, and never having dispatched a live animal before, I was a little nervous about how it would feel. It really wasn’t that bad. The animal does not have to suffer.
The compelling thing about rabbit as a source of protein is that rabbits from birth to butcher takes about 8 weeks. They consume far less food than just about any other animal to reach their butcher weight of about 5-6 lbs, and their food is cheap.
After processing, you get over 3 pounds of meat (including bone weight). A rabbit can easily feed two people all of the protein they need for an entire day. In a survival scenario, this is a major advantage! Rabbits are small, quiet, and don’t stink!
I’m glad I took the workshop. Now that I’m comfortable with the process, I am very probably going to add rabbitry to my preparedness and survival tool chest, and recommend you consider it too.
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The recipe!
Overnight, we marinated the rabbit in lime and garlic.
Then, we bisected the rabbit, grilled half and baked half. On the grilled half, we brushed on some chipotle tabasco and on the baked half we seasoned with Tajin Clasico, which is a spicy seasoning with a hint of lime. We salted the rabbit and baked half of it for about a half hour at 400, and grilled the other half on medium for about 15 minutes, turning when necessary.
MAN, it was GOOD.
Both the grilled and baked rabbit was superb. It was full of flavor, tender, and juicy. Just like Nick Klein says, it tasted like chicken, only better!
First rabbit!
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