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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think is bloody terrible of this nursing home, serving chicken pie to residents,

58 replies

TheCunnyFuntOfEastwick · 28/10/2012 15:09

That is actually not chicken, but rabbit! My grandma has been in a nursing home for a while, she broke her knee and couldn't manage to go home and look after herself so she booked herself into the nursing home next door.

One night they had 'chicken' pie for tea, the carer that took my grandma hers told her it was actually rabbit, but the other residents wouldn't eat it if they knew, so they were all told it was chicken!

This isn't any old crappy home either, it's meant to be one of the best ones in our town, last month my grandmas bill was over 4.5k for both her and her husband (he is there full time) Shock

AIBU to think this is bloody disgraceful? I've been furious at MIL before when I ate chicken pie then found out later it was actually rabbit.

OP posts:
bureni · 28/10/2012 15:51

Cunnyfunt, please pm me the details, times and dates, name and adress of this nursing home as I would like to hear what they have to say about the locally shot uncertified non traceable rabbit they are serving to their residents. Could you also include the managers name and the great white hunters details as well.
I would also like to direct the manager of this nasty bad nursing home to this thread so please feel free to PM me the details as I feel it is my duty to have this terrible matter resolved in the interests of the residents of the home.

MarianneM · 28/10/2012 15:52

I don't get it. OP, what is so terrible about eating rabbit as opposed to chicken?

I understand the "illegal meat" aspect but your beef seems to be specifically about the rabbit. And why wouldn't the residents eat it if they knew?

Are you one of those people who get all misty eyed about "eating pets" but happily tuck into intensively reared chicken?

I ate rabbit or hare as a child, caught by a hunter friend. It was delicious.

ravenAK · 28/10/2012 15:52

I've made rabbit pie as a 'blackboard special' in my publican days.

It's a right faff - full of tiny little bones which have to be removed (& could be a choking hazard to a vulnerable person if missed).

I don't believe a nursing home would. Horrible soggy battery chicken is dirt cheap. Even if the rabbits hopped into the kitchen & threw themselves in the pot, it still wouldn't be cheaper to pay someone to skin/gut them & then take the cooked meat off the bone.

halloweeneyqueeney · 28/10/2012 15:53

I'ld pay more for rabbit pie than chicken pie, I think they are BU to assume that people wont eat it

BeingBooyhoo · 28/10/2012 16:09

why would someone make this up? Confused i dont get it.

CailinDana · 28/10/2012 16:17

You'd have to a particularly skilled cook to prepare rabbit from scratch. It takes fecking ages.

mutny · 28/10/2012 16:17

Yeah im thinking someone is making up stories.

Yes *amber I agree. I think the OPs grandma. :)

being either the care work has said something as a joke (maybe part of a larger conversation) and the OPs grandma has taken it out of context. Or the care worker has a to bush sense of humour. Ot the grandma is lying as she wants to go home (happens alot) or the op is lying because she wanted to start a thread that would shock us all but didn't realize people would know the legal implications.

Viviennemary · 28/10/2012 16:18

That is just unacceptable. I've never eaten rabbit. And wouldn't want to. I've eaten venison twice I think but don't really approve of this. Don't ask me why really, I just don't. If this was my relative I would report the home. I don't expect this meat would be allowed to be served.

BeingBooyhoo · 28/10/2012 16:20

thanks mutny, i can see how a joke out of context could be taken seriously. lets hope it is just that.

halloweeneyqueeney · 28/10/2012 16:22

was it like "lovely piece of squirrel" on friday night dinner?

MarianneM · 28/10/2012 16:22

To the last poster, what do you mean you don't approve eating venison?

Because it's Bambi?

But you approve eating chicken reared in horrible conditions?

halloweeneyqueeney · 28/10/2012 16:23

yeah I don't get that either, there's much more to disapprove of about cheap chicken than shot rabbit!

Original poster
TheCunnyFuntOfEastwick · 28/10/2012 16:25

Marianne my problem is that these people are being served rabbit but told it's chicken.

Bureni with all due respect I'm not going to send details of this home to a complete stranger on the internet. This happened weeks ago, I don't know the time or date of when it happened.

For all I know it could be bullshit, all I know is what my grandma told me, and what she was told.

OP posts:
mutny · 28/10/2012 16:26

That is just unacceptable. I've never eaten rabbit. And wouldn't want to. I've eaten venison twice I think but don't really approve of this. Don't ask me why really, I just don't. If this was my relative I would report the home. I don't expect this meat would be allowed to be served.

But it wasn't. As I said before, the kitchen manager of the home could go to prison had a resident got food poisoning and died. People don't take these risks to feed illegal meat.

bureni · 28/10/2012 16:26

mutny, the OP has already stated that her hubbys friend supplies the shot rabbit free of charge, the Ops grandmother has nothing to do with it since the Op already knew by her own admission that the home was being supplied with free locally shot rabbit before her grandmother had even been served the food. I am still awaiting details of this nursing home from the OP.

bureni · 28/10/2012 16:30

Cunny, it was you who stated that your hubbys mate supplied the rabbit not your grandmother, your story is indeed bullshit made up by yourself. It is just as well you gave no details of this home as you would have got a lot of innocent people into serious trouble by making a stupid story like this up and posting it on a public forum. You should be ashamed of yourself.

BeingBooyhoo · 28/10/2012 16:32

bureni what thread are you reading. OP did not say her hubby's friend supplied any meat! read her posts!

mutny · 28/10/2012 16:34

mutny, the OP has already stated that her hubbys friend supplies the shot rabbit free of charge

She didn't say her husbands friend.

bureni · 28/10/2012 16:41

Sorry my bad

They got rabbit because the husband of someone who works there goes shooting so can provide free rabbit.

I think it's worse because (and I know this is going to sound absolutely awful) my grandma is the only person in the home who is all there. Everybody else, well, they aren't all there. I just feel like it's taking advantage of their vulnerability sad

Original poster
TheCunnyFuntOfEastwick · 28/10/2012 16:48

Cunny, it was you who stated that your hubbys mate supplied the rabbit not your grandmother, your story is indeed bullshit made up by yourself. It is just as well you gave no details of this home as you would have got a lot of innocent people into serious trouble by making a stupid story like this up and posting it on a public forum. You should be ashamed of yourself.

What the actual fuck?

OP posts:
CwtchesAndCuddles · 28/10/2012 16:51

I just don't believe it, even if it was free the time it would take to prepare the rabbit would not be cost effective, it is such a faff, plus very few care home catering staff I've come accross would have the skills to clean a rabbit! Opening a bag of frozen diced chicken would be more likely (or a bought in pie) in my experience.

halloweeneyqueeney · 28/10/2012 17:04

agree with that, they're not chefs they're cooks who open packets and heat them up, I can't imagine them doing somthing that specialised or time consuming either

GhostShip · 28/10/2012 17:23

After working in a care home myself, there's not a chance in hell a cook would risk cooking something that had been shot by someones family member. What if the rabbit had diseases? Risk assessments have to be done for food too, they have to follow a strict menu plan.

Oh and I don't know one elderly person who would prefer chicken over rabbit. The men in particular at homes I've worked at would have been over the moon!

FayeKinitt · 28/10/2012 19:36

DH (trained chef) said it would take him 5-10 mins to get a whole dead rabbit ready for cooking. One rabbit would serve two people.

It seems an awful lot of work for these care home employees when they could just, as someone said above, open up a bag of cheap chicken.

It would also take skill that an ordinary cook (not chef) wouldn't have. Apparently you have to take care to do it a certain way and avoid piercing the bladder.

LordLurkin · 29/10/2012 00:27

This thread is a tad bizarre to say the least. Im hoping that it is a case of something being taken out of context. I make rabbit pie for my family pretty regularly when rabbit is in season. It takes time to do (quite a lit of time to do right) and to prep cook and then strip the meat from the bones of numerous rabbits would end up costing more than it would cost to just buy chicken.

As quite a few posters have said it is a fiddly job that an average cook just wouldnt bother with. That being said rabbit pie is a very nice dinner indeed.