Cleaning rabbit... been a while... have ????'s

[cajuntec]

It's been a LONG time since I've been rabbit hunting (20+ years).  I seem to remember, back when I was a young teen, that I had to cut a "gland" out of the rabbit, or it would make the meat taste too "gamey" according to my mother.  Anyone have any idea what that was about, or do I just skin 'em, gut em' and cook em'?  Thanks in advance.

BTW... I'm asking because deer season is coming to a close in a few weeks, and I've been seeing rabbit running under my treestand.  The day I start hunting them, I probably won't see them anymore, and the deer will be everywhere!    :rolleyes:  

All the best,
Glenn

[bretto]

Don't know of any gland in Rabbits that need to be removed. Just make sure You gut them and wash them up as soon as You can. bretto

[ThePushArchery]

The way we do it here in PA is simple and fast. We keep plastic grocery bags with us in our game vest.

Simply hold it belly up with one hand, and open the insides up from brisket to groin. Then grab at the base of both front legs with one hand, and the base of the back legs with the other. Then simply fold it in half, breaking the back. (the back should be on the inside of the fold, and the insides should be drooping out on the outside of the fold.) Them hold on tight and give it a good baseball swing or two. (don't let go of that bunny) The insides should fly out with no problems.

Once gutted in the 'primal' way described above, just flip it over and grab the fur with both hands in the middle of the back and tear the hide off... moving your hands from the middle to the front and rear of the bunny. A few cuts to chop the lower half of the front and hind legs and the head off, and you're done. Throw it in the grocery bag to keep grass, fur, and anything else floating around in your vest from sticking to the meat. Then keep hunting. Should only take 2 minutes tops.

[GingivitisKahn]

We gravity gut rabbits.  Make a decent size slice in the belly.  Grab the rabbit around the neck and give the bunny a good twirl (like you are throwing an underhand pitch).  Most of the yucky bits south of the diaphragm come right out (though the kidneys will stay in there).

Don't hesitate like I did once though.  For some reason my attempt stalled and my follow-through was bad.  The result was that I smacked myself in the head with a partially gutted rabbit.  Of course my friend walked out of the brush just in time to see that.  :-D

[Shawn Leonard]

Just slit them and gut them right away. When ya get them home peel fur off and break back right behind front legs and cut off. The back loins and hind edn is all that is worth eating. I do themthe same way with guts in and it is very easy. I shoot lots and lots of bunnies. Some years 75-100 with both bow and shotgun. Shawn

[John Krause]

Check out The Greatest Rabbit Hunt Ever in the article/story section. My buddy describes it perfectly.

[Labs4me]

The cleaning process nqel;j;qjg;qj;ojg;jg just described will work fine. Rabbits are fairly easy to clean and there really is no wrong way to approach the field dressing chore. The only thing you can do to make an easy job difficult is allow them to cool off before you begin the field dressing chores. Remember that, depending on where and when you hunt, rabbits may be prone to having fleas. For this reason, I also like to put them in a plastic bag until I get them back to my cleaning station.

[Lin Rhea]

Rabbits can carry some parasites, but I'm not sure if this would be what your mother was talking about. I've seen them under the skin on the shoulders. I dont eat rabbit unless it's reasobably cold weather. For some reason I think they have less parasite in cold weather.
   Be sure and cook it well with no pink in it. A friend of mine says eating pink rabbit gives him nightmares.
   It sounds like I dont like rabbit, but I really do, just being careful with it. It's one of the best of wild game.
                           Lin

[Tilbilly]

I don't even gut them. I lay the belly down and slit the skin along the spine and bone out the backstraps. Then I work the fur off the legs by cutting and pulling. Then I cut off the feet, and cut away each leg where they join the body. No guts involved. I do like to do all this outside. I once tried this indoors on top of a warm electrical transformer box. Within minutes I could see little fleas popping off from the bunny   :eek:

[Eastern fisher]

Either way you look at it.  THEY STINK yuck

[cajuntec]

Thanks everyone.  I greatly appreciate all the advice.  Guess I used to do it the "hard way" (and it really was, from what I remember) when I was a teen.  We had a limit of 8, and I could and would shoot my limit almost every time out of my dad's sugar-cane field.  I'd wait until I got home to clean all 8, and they would take forever to clean.  I was young, and didn't know any better.  My dad (step-father, but always "dad" to me) didn't hunt, so I was left to learn on my own, and my mother was going by memory from what my deceased father had told her to do with them (he was a hunter).  

Now I know!  Thanks everyone!  I really appreciate you all taking the time to respond.

For the comments regarding under-cooked meat - I completely understand and promise to comply.  It only takes one time making that mistake, and I won't ever make it again.     I'm planning on throwing one or two in a slow cooker with some potatoes, carrots, onions, etc... and maybe make a Rabbit Sauce-Piquant with one also.  Now what did I do with those recipes...

All the best,
Glenn

[Terry Green]

Joe Coots has a segment in The Bowhunters of Trad Gang DVD......quick, clean and easy rabbit field dressing.....don't take but a few seconds and ya don't even need a knife!

[freeman]

I'm suprised no one mentioned checking the liver for white spots. That's the only thing I've ever been taught to keep an eye out for with rabbits. Something to do with Tuleremia I believe. Don't know. Never have found any that looked suspicious.

[Roadkill]

You will sometimes find a sack-like watery bubble with white specks it in near the kidneys.  I am no biologist but think this has some implications from flea larvae.  I clean the rabbbit-all the above works, then soak them in cold water with vingar and salt for a few hours and then clean them again.  I love rabbit and this has been a slow season out here due to the drought.  Picked up on sunday, but my shooting waned terribly... Ask traxx or russel.  come to think of it, neither of them scored either....

[Dirty Bill]

Actually there is a small gland kind of grey in color,underneath each "armpit". I remember my Dad telling me to make sure and take them out. Maybe because that's the way he was taught? Anyway I always do. Now you made me want to go on a good rabbit hunt.  

[Labs4me]

Just whipped up a batch of rabbit catchatore this past Sunday with the intent of eating it while enjoying the late afternoon Detroit Lions football game. The catchatore turned out perfect, but NEVER use the verb "enjoy" (or "win") in the same sentence as the Detroit Lions.

Slow cooked it in a crock pot with mushrooms, green peppers, carrots (rabbits like carrots!) and sweet onions in a tomato base sauce with a hint of red wine, served over whole grain rice- Supremo!

[allanburden]

Labs4me, you got me laughing pretty good there, of course I understand perfectly as my Carolina Panthers are playing remarkably horrible as well.

[cajuntec]

Originally posted by Dirty Bill:
Actually there is a small gland kind of grey in color,underneath each "armpit". I remember my Dad telling me to make sure and take them out. Maybe because that's the way he was taught? Anyway I always do. Now you made me want to go on a good rabbit hunt.      

Thats what it was!  The minute I saw "armpit", it came back to me - that is exactly what my mother was talking about back then.  Maybe it was something our "old time" fathers were taught.  Doesn't seem necessary by what most people say.  Wonder why they used to remove them?

All the best,
Glenn

[Dirty Bill]

Just cut them away with you knife.  

[Angus]

What about jackrabbits?  Having only once eaten commercial rabbit-Lapin Roti at a restaurant long ago in Pacific Grove, CA, I have no idea if you can even eat jacks.  Our First Nations brethren must have eaten plenty, though, and we do have an Oregon bunny hunt coming up!