To feed the kids rabbit...

[ReallyTired]

Cost of food is soring so as an experiment I have bought a rabbit. The meat is cheaper than other meats and I think the welfare standards are higher. The animal has been shot in the hertfordshire countryside so has had a better life than many farm animals.

Dh thinks I am wierd to eat rabbit. He thinks its like eating a pet rabbit. My children are completely carnivorous and seem fairly happy to eat rabbit.

The only dilema is what the best way is to cook rabbit.

[McNewPants2013]

Go for it

[marriedinwhiteagain]

I find it a bit bony and never enjoy the shot. My grandma could skin one and she called hers velvet stew - she added root vegetables and pearl barley I think. Whenever I've seen it, it has been v expensive though. I remember the rabbits hanging in the butchers when I was litte and remember the butcher preparing them behind the counter!! But I am ancient.

[ReallyTired]

"I get them in the skins for free or £2.00 for a cleaned and gutted one. "

Do you live the country? I live in a town and not many butchers sell rabbit. I suppose the price difference is the cost of transport. If I have to spend £5 on diseal to get a free rabbit then it slightly defeats the object.

If my experiment with rabbit is a sucess then prehaps I need to investiage where I can buy more cheaper and freeze it.

[Fluffycloudland77]

If there's no lead shot in it how do you know it hasn't been snared? Snares are not nice.

[HollyBerryBush]

When I was growing up, there was a Cypriot family down the road, he used to go rabbiting at night and hang them on the apple tree in the garden to cure.

It's not really a traditional south of England dish, although DB up north is quite partial to it.

Although I draw the line at pigs head. Man buying one of those for Christmas dinner one year

[PacificDogwood]

YANBU.
Rabbit is yummy.
And I had no idea it was so cheap

Yy to not naming something you intend to eat.

This is where Jamie Oliver went wrong with his turkeys and pigs IMO...

[EndoplasmicReticulum]

Yanbu.

Rabbit is indeed yummy. My brother used to go out and shoot them. They were definitely free-range.

I think if you're going to eat animals you shouldn't discriminate on the basis of cuteness.

[NettoSuperstar]

HollyBerryBush, I was going to do pig's head last Christmas, but ended up being ill/stressed/moving house so didn't.
I plan on doing it this year.

[ReallyTired]

"If there's no lead shot in it how do you know it hasn't been snared? Snares are not nice."

I can see the damage caused by the lead shot. (althought he lead shot has been removed.) I think its unlikely that poor bunny has been snared.

I thought that snares were illegal.

[HollyBerryBush]

Let me show what I came across the other day in the Telgraph

agirlcalledjack.com/

Singly mum with very little money left for food, about a tenner I think.

She has some amazing recipes - can do a meal for 23p - quite an internet sensation now.

We are all very wasteful with food if the truth be known.

[EleanorFarjeon]

Pig's head!

[squoosh]

My mother tells me that my favourite snack as a toddler was an ear from a freshly boiled pig's head.

Lovely.

[StuntGirl]

Why not. Nigella has a recipe called Hot Cross Bunny which I make a variant of with tofu, it's absolutely delicious (just a curry with Thai Red curry sauce really). One batch can do us between 4 and 8 portions depending how greedy we're feeling. I often make the full recipe, stick half in the freezer for later and live off the other half for a few days (it's just 2 adults here so it stretches further).

swalloworspit.wordpress.com/2011/04/26/easter-monday-hot-cross-bunny/

[Allalonenow]

I like rabbit, the BBC food website has some nice ideas for rabbit such as with prunes, and I like it in a casserole with white wine tomatoes and red peppers.

[VerySmallSqueak]

We regularly had rabbit when we were first married.I did the gutting and skinning and DH the cooking.
The only time I have cooked rabbit,I did rabbit in cider and it was lovely.
DH grew up having to hunt and bring home rabbit for the pot.

[CrapsWithBears]

Nothing wrong with a bit of rabbit.

[overprotection]

Meat is meat. As long as you aren't eating human. Don't personally find rabbit very nice though, bit weird tasting.

[hedgefund]

as i have rabbits the concept of eating rabbit meat isn't appealing. They are such lovely creatures. i wouldn't imagine they have that much meat on them anyway. my mum used to eat rabbit during the war so to me eating rabbits is something that is only done when other meat sources are unavailable.

[cazboldy]

i'm not overly keen on the taste of rabbit.

I can see what people mean about naming animals, but that doesn't make them pets.....

We are rearing a bullock for the freezer. As soon as we saw he was a boy we knew that was what would happen. The kids understand.

He is called Barney.

I see no reason why he should not enjoy a good quality of life in the mean time, and if that means being led out to grass, or having a brush/scratch behind the ear, then so what?

The alternative was to have him shot the day after he was born..... you can't give Jersey bull calves away......

[PacificDogwood]

I think children are quite capable of keeping the idea of 'pet' and 'food' apart.
I had a rather suburban upbringing, but close family with farms and have seen pigs killed and slaughtered. Even at the time, it did not bother me. I understand what you mean, caz; not sure how I'd cope with a name though...
We had bunnies as pets, my brother and I, but they were (in my head) 'different' than the rabbit we had for Sunday lunch IYKWIM. My DH thinks I am deranged - he is still grieving for his pet bunny who died 23.3.1983. RIP.

I don't like game/venison etc, but enjoy rabbit .

[TheSmallClanger]

Don't push it on your DH if he thinks it is weird. DH and I are making excuses not to see a couple we know now because they are obsessed with reducing food waste and spend far too much time trying to serve us game (which neither of us eats) and shitty leftovers at their house. Neither DH or I are big carnivores (DH pretty much pescatarian) and the endless digs about "all meat being meat" are wearing extremely thin now.

[borisjohnsonshair]

to think that status quo song would have made a great eurovision entry?

[borisjohnsonshair]

sorry posted inwrong thread too much wine

[GobbySadcase]

I'm not too keen, bit stringy and don't like the taste.

[pictish]

I really like rabbit! Yanbu!