Rabbit cuts, advice wanted

[jennabug]

I helped a friend butcher some rabbits earlier this weekend and am hoping to cut them up this weekend and store them.
I'm thinking about keeping all the belly flaps together for jerky, front legs for wings, debone the saddles for sausage, and keep the rear legs whole for smoking or slow cooking. The rest can go in the "soup" pile.
Does this sound like a good approach? Or alternate suggestions? I've never pieced out multiple rabbits before. Thanks!

[KFhunter]

Yes, that's almost exactly what I did.


You'll love rabbit wings 

[KFhunter]

If you got them young enough you can use those saddles like a chicken breast

[jennabug]

Thanks KFhunter. Glad to hear I'm on the right track.

Several were a little older than usual. The owner had health issues that has impaired their ability to butcher on their own. I want to be able to give them some of the finished packages as well.

[Bigshooter]

Those saddles are the back straps.  It's my favorite part of the rabbit.  I love them fried like chicken.  No way I would turn that into sausage.

[GBoyd]

https://honest-food.net/how-to-cut-up-a-rabbit/

This is how I do it. I usually throw away the belly flap though because whatever recipe that I'm doing using the other pieces won't be good for that loose meat.

[KFhunter]

I split them length ways too, I've done it a lot of ways.

When your transitioning store bought chicken eaters into rabbit eaters you don't want those rabbits past 5 weeks of age, especially if you're substituting saddles for chicken breast; it's just too big of a leap. Anything over 5 or 6 weeks of age goes into soups, or gets cut into small pieces, or sausage.

[jennabug]

Yeah, I ended up keeping most of the backstraps in whole pieces. The ones that weren't very tender or had a lot of thick silver skin went into the sausage pile.
The front legs went into packages of 6 each for "wings", rear legs into packages of 2 each, loins into packs of about 4 or 5 each. The belly flaps will probably be made into jerky this weekend, and I will smoke a half dozen rear legs (probably another weekend). Anything else I could get off the bones went in to the sausage pile, and all of the bones are in a huge bag to make soup and pressure can stock.   

[runamuk]

Fried chicken style is pretty easy to pass off as like chicken.  Also I would think cooking it up chicken and dumpling style also would be pretty acceptable to most palates.

[Redstar]

That link for cutting up a rabbit is great, I remember looking at it when I butchered my first few rabbits.

I really like rabbit curry. I do more of a Japanese style curry. Cut isn't as important since you end up basically boiling the meat until it's tender. Add some carrots, onions and whatever other veggies you like and serve over rice.

Hot S&B Golden Curry Sauce Mix is my favorite. Safeway usually has it, here's the amazon link because I can't find it on safeway's website. http://amzn.to/2CH0vIc

[jennabug]

Did a quick weeknight meal of rabbit legs (herb rubbed in the morning, pan seared and oven finished), risotto from a package and brussels sprouts last night. The legs were a little tougher than chicken thighs probably more due to it being an older animal and a rushed cooking, but the husband said it tasted just like chicken.

I'll have to try the curry. I had been wondering about that. And the fried style is on my list too.

[Bigshooter]

I split them length ways too, I've done it a lot of ways.

When your transitioning store bought chicken eaters into rabbit eaters you don't want those rabbits past 5 weeks of age, especially if you're substituting saddles for chicken breast; it's just too big of a leap. Anything over 5 or 6 weeks of age goes into soups, or gets cut into small pieces, or sausage.

I usually butcher at 12 to 16 weeks.  They dressed at about 6 - 8 pounds and are super tender.  Fooled a lot of people into thinking they were eating chicken.

[jackelope]

Threads like this make me wish the females in my house were ok with us eating rabbits.

I can verify that crock pot pulled rabbit is awesome and might be a good way to utilize the older rabbits.

[jennabug]

Threads like this make me wish the females in my house were ok with us eating rabbits.

I can verify that crock pot pulled rabbit is awesome and might be a good way to utilize the older rabbits.

I wish you could too.

[jackelope]

It's all good. At this point, me selling her excess animals pays a good part of her feed bills.