How do you butcher a rabbit properly? To prepare it for a meal? Feild Dress?

Question

I guess it's called feild dressing. How do you field dress a rabbit? Is it hard? Ive tried to find info online but only for deer. Thanks

Field Dress*

please serious answers only no disrespect

sorry i jusy clicked away. yahoo put it here. didnt realize it was the wrong section.

Answer 1

Thed hardset part of field dressing a rabbit is keeping the fur off the meat. Some people will dip the rabbit in water before making the first cut. You can start by slicing a 2-3 inch cut right behind the back of the head in the neck area, but only cut the skin, not the meat. Slide 2 fingers in one side of the cut with one hand and 2 fingers from the other hand so that you can pull the skin in opposite directions. Keep pulling till the hide is pulled down to the hind legs. At times you may have to cut a small portion of hide on the underbelly that did not seperate from the first pull. Work each hind leg out of the hide and cut each hind leg off at the ankle joint. You may have to break the ankle before cutting. Now work the front legs out of the hide and cut at the ankle joints also. Your rabit should now be footless. Roll the rabbit over to its back side and CAREFULLY, and I mean carefully make a slit from the lower abdomon all the way up thru the chest bone. Do not cut too deep so you don't puncture the guts. Reach into the chest are up into the neck, you will feel its esophogus or throat, cut this into, then with 2 or 3 fingers, sweep the insides out from head to butt. All the innards (guts) should come out fairly easily. Now cut the head off right above the shoulders. Take a water hose or running water and tidy the meat up a bit.
It is actually much like a deer. but only smaller.
It will be pretty hard the first time or two, but it gets easier with practice. You will learn short cuts and tricks as you go.
I hope this helps and doesnt confuse.

Answer 2

Nail about a foot wide plywood board onto a post and then install two hooks or nail two nails from the back so they stick out in the front to use as hook. These should be about 10" apart.

If the rabbit is alive, hit it on the back of the head just behind the ears with a small club or there is a method you can use with your hand to snap the head back and break the neck. Then place the head between your two feet and pull up on the back legs to make sure the neck is dislocated.

Just above the feet on the back legs is a hole that you run the hooks on the post through. Cut the head off. Then make a slice all the way around the diameter of the back legs just below the hooks. Make a slice down the inside of each leg towards the abdomen. Then make a slice down the abdomen towards the neck. Afterwards you can pull the hid back starting at the hooks and fillet the hide off from the carcass. You'll need to cut the portion off around the tail then you can fillet it all off or some people will try ripping the hide off. Both work, but filleting works better on older rabbits. Make sure to cut the front feet off before removing the hide.

Once the hide has been taken off, the chest cavity and stomach can be opened. Place a 5 gallon bucket under the rabbit to catch the guts that you'll cut out. After you cut the guts out, then rinse and wash the carcass good with water to get the blood out. Then remove the rabbit from the hooks and cut the back feet off.

Make sure to rinse the rabbit good to get all of the hair off before you freeze it. Some people say it's best to dunk the rabbit in water before dressing it so that the loose hair is less likely to stick to the meat.

Answer 3

You did put this in the wrong category but anyway. . . We used to raise rabbits for meat. My husband did most of it but. . . . since we did not hunt them, first they had to be put down and he simply used a short 2x4 and one swift whack. We then hung them on a nail. Some people say to head them first but they don't bleed much so we didn't do that. You can hang them by their back leg where there are 2 bones running together. Put the nail between those two bones so they will stay in place. Cut the skin around all four legs and begin pulling from the back legs (or top of your hang)- once you free all four legs and have pulled the skin over the head you can then head the rabbit. To gut the rabbit, make an incision in the soft belly of the rabbit being careful not to go too deep and penetrate intestines, etc. Cut this incision to near the anus and cut around the anus. The gut should be easily removed at this point. It is important to use a clean knives and to rinse the rabbit in clean, cold water several times. We would rinse in a 5 gallon bucket outside and then again in the kitchen sink. The meat can then be frozen in freezer paper or ziplock freezer bags or prepared fresh. To prepare, use as you would chicken. At our house, our children would not eat rabbit and so I cut it up prior to freezing and the children would gobble down the "floppy eared chicken" that I would prepare for them. Wild rabbit will be tougher than domestic- my brother used to bring a few home when I was a kid. If I remember, he would brown it in the skillet and then roast it covered in cream of mushroom soup (did the same for venison). A word of advice- get the buckshot out before cooking! I used to hate that when I was a kid.

Now, as for all these people who are complaining about this question being cruel. The Bible tells us to rise, kill, and eat. Humans are God's chosen creatures and he gave us other creatures and plants to keep us healthy. You enjoy your rabbit and be sure to thank God for providing for your family in such as way as this. . . .

Answer 4

Are you talking about butchering it out in the field, before you take it home, or once you get back?
The way I always did it started from the back legs and worked down. You'll want a strong wire or cord, a razor blade, and tin snips.
Tie the wire around a tree limb, or hang it from a nail. Make a noose in the other end, and tighten it around the rabbit's hind foot, just below the heel. Cut carefully around the skin behind the heels until you free it, then work down the backs of the thighs toward the tail. Cut the tail off with the skin, then free up the anogenital opening, which is attached to the base of the tail, from the skin in front of it. Peel the skin down like a glove. When you get to the front feet, just pull really hard until it breaks. Cut the head off with the tin snips when you get to the neck.
If you're at home doing this, you want a gut bucket lined with two leak-proof plastic trash bags waiting under the rabbit. Go up to the anogenital opening again. Free it from the tail, working carefully so you don't perforate it, and free it from the rest of the pelvis with your little finger, so you can gently slide it in and out of the abdomen. Don't pull too hard or handle it roughly, because its sphincters are protecting your meat from the rabbit's poop and pee. Next make a small slit down from the front of the pelvis; just a centimeter or so, and just shallow enough to just through the abdominal wall. Slide your finger in and expand the hole, and then, using your hand to protect the rabbit's guts from your razor, slit the abdomen all the way up to the rib cage. Or just rip it open, but the other way looks better. Pull the anogenital opening down through the pelvis, making sure nothing spills out of it, and drop it, with the rest of the guts, into the gut bucket. The stomach will be left, anchoring the guts to the rabbit. Feel around until you find the esophagus, and grip it firmly to pull it free. If you just tug on the stomach, the esophagus will pop off and spill stomach juice in your rabbit.
Next there's the liver. If you want to make pate with it, pull it out and find the gall bladder. It's a small, shockingly green pouch full of gall, which you really don't want in your mouth. Peel the gall bladder off and throw it away.
Next take two fingers and scoop out everything inside the ribcage.
You're left with the kidneys, which have some utility in archaic german dishes that are better left untried, and some masses of fat attached to them. This is probably the only fat on the whole carcass, so it might come in handy for cooking.
Take your tin snips and cut off all the feet, then drop the rabbit in a bucket or sink full of cold water. Use a knife to try to scrape off all the fur that got stuck to the meat before you freeze it.
If this is a wild rabbit, it needs to be stewed. Rabbit is one of the best stew meats out there: it's more robust and flavorful than chicken, and its texture can stand out to hours and hours in a crock pot. This is a disadvantage on the barbecue. If your rabbit is young and tender, you can barbecue it with strips of raw bacon wrapped around for flavor.
To sum up, the hard parts of dressing a rabbit are freeing the sphincters at the base of the tail, avoiding cutting the guts as you open it, keeping the sphincters from dribbling pee on the meat, and pulling the stomach out without breaking it. You could gut it minus the skinning stage, but you'll get a lot more hair on the inside of the belly, and that's where the choice meat (the loin) is. Hair is a bear to get off a carcass.

Answer 5

Okay first of all why would someone eat an innocent little bunny rabbit. That is just disgusting. You are cruel. And I totally agree with the person above me even thought I wasnt born in the year of the rabbit

Answer 6

My dad used to go to a local farm and shoot rabbits. He would bring them home and do it in the garage. It was very disgusting actually. He would skin it, then slice it open and clean it out. Then he would remove the head and paws and bring it in the house and my mother would roast it like a chicken. After wards she would make a type of rabbit stew. It was good but very game-ey in taste.

Answer 7

this is the pets area. this isn't a area the place you're taught the thank you to butcher animals. additionally, rabbits are pets! do no longer kill it! Please, do no longer do this to the animal, its disgusting. you're killing an animal greater healthful to be a puppy. How might you sense if I got here on right here, asking the thank you to correct butcher and feild gown a canine?

Answer 8

Cut the skin off, pull the guts out. It's not rocket science.

Answer 9

This should not be in the pet category. Pet involves NOT EATING the animal. I respect that you hunt or whatever and that's your choice, but animal lovers looking at the pet section probably won't appreciate your question. Try a different category?

Go to the category Sports>Outdoor Recreation>Hunting and you may have more luck.

Good Luck!

Answer 10

I'm born in the year of the rabbit... if you butcher my fellow homie, i will butcher you in your sleep.