Variations of brown sugar bourbon-glazed ham or rosemary-garlic roasted lamb, warm, billowy biscuits and roasted root vegetables grace traditional Easter tables, and thankfully so. If you want to go beyond the merely traditional but keep close to the holiday’s theme, consider rabbit. After learning how good they are for you and how great they taste, you may just want Peter Cottontail to ditch the bunny trail and hop on into your Dutch oven.
Rabbit is leaner than chicken, veal or turkey, with less fat and cholesterol. It has half the calories per pound compared to beef and pork and is the most easily digestible protein around. Since it’s both abundant and ubiquitous, low consumption has little to do with availability and lots to do with Thumper (a Cottontail) and Bugs (probably a Lop-Eared Gray.)
“Some people just can’t get beyond that mindset,” says Stephen Edwards. His Aspen Hill Farms in Boyne City, Michigan supplies local three- and four-star resorts and sells nationally through U.S. Wellness Meats. “I’ve had my rump chewed any number of times by people who say, ‘That’s not an appropriate food.’” He just holds his tongue and keeps his cool.
Here’s a bunch of rabbit recipes for basting your bunny.
Helpful suggestion: take your bunny to a movie before cooking him.
Mom’s tradition on us kiddies birthdays was that we could have whatever we wanted for dinner. My choice was Hasenpfeffer. Good Eats:
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/hasenpfeffer-rabbit-stew/Detail.aspx
Then one year I went for frog legs. Mom was always happy to go to the local deli and get the requested meal.
Desert was ALWAYS vanilla ice cream chocolate cake roll.
I wish I were 10 again.
You eat Bambi (venison) what’s the problem with Thumper ?
Rabbit is very nice – better than cat anyway!
#1. Dad raced pigeons. The deadbeats ended up in a casserole. Another beautiful and underrated traditional dish. Deadbeat Pigeon Stew.
Its an amazing show of the media’s power
Americans and Canadians generally don’t eat animals for dinner meat that were Disney favorite characters
Rabbits- Bugs Bunny and Bambi for Deer meat
Amazing isn’t eat
I don’t quite get the Christianity worship of rabbits during Easter? What of the eggs? WTF is that about? Rabbit don’t lay eggs.
Anyway, I’m glad chocolate Easter eggs is what is served. Which brings up another question, the chocolate?
Alphie, pls weigh in on this and explain this weirdness from your perspective. I’m sure there’s a logical explanation.
Both the egg and the rabbit are symbols of fertility and were very popular in the Roman Empire as Christianity got going. As everything else with religion, its a mix of theology, custom, adoption of current and previous myths and so forth. I think chocolate makes women horny and is a welcomed addition to any festival romp.
leaner isn’t always better.
*cough* Rabbit starvation
#6 hmmm. Seems sexual in nature. Why are the kids involved with this sexual ritual?
#8 – a country that is prepared to eat 1Bn fried hog’s anus patties every year is concerned about eating meat that is so lean it’s nature’s Atkins diet?
As far as I’m concerned, Bambi mother was just pre-roasted…
I’m got nothing against chowing down on Thumper either. In a red wine and cream velouté sauce, mmmmm.
Come to think of it, I’m expecting a shipment of Rudolph meat shortly.
You can keep Flossy, Bossy and Elsie as well.
Buffalo meat is a lot tastier and more tender.
I don’t know. I like roasted chicken the best.
You can keep your rodent to yourself.
#12 lol
True dat
Chicken = corporately manufactured mass processed chock full of hormones, anti-biotics, salmonella, preservatives and who knows what else.
Rabbit = a nice change of pace.
I only wish I could avoid factory food. but free range is not available or is too expensive.
All food is food. Culturally bound to think otherwise. Horses, cats, dogs = good meat just thrown away.
i usually eat rabbit on easter.. and i start by biting the ears off first…. hhhmmm chocolaty
Easter is a silly holiday for that is for kids and finding eggs and for kids eating Peeps and “Hop” pooping candies.
First, Easter is just represents a cultural replacement of what was back in the day the Pagan the Spring Equinox. Like how Jesus wasn’t born at Christmas, but Christmas was the replacement of the Pagan Winter Solstice holiday. You know, keep the populace happy with change. Pagans get to switch to Christianity and keep all their festivals, they just have new names … facts be damned. And that’s politics for you, even back in Roman times.
Second, hardcore Christians always say “God sent his only son to die for you” … well, if he was resurrected 3 days later, God wasn’t that big into the idea of personal sacrifice.
And to any offended religious nuts out there, I’m not actually making fun of your religion — non-violent religions (like Christianity) serve a great purpose to provide the moral foundations people need (and besides, the 10 Commandments introduced the idea of law that even a King must abide by. Before Hebrew Biblical law, there was no concept that kings and emperors were accountable to anyone because they often pretended to be god-kings.)
I’m just saying Easter is the most perverted holiday imaginable … where did this Easter Bunny come from??? Why are there Cadbury Eggs and Peeps and jelly beans?
It is just bizarre and all the candy sucks and some of the lemon or orange flavor candy is just gross.
And it takes some sort of scientist to calculate the date that Easter falls on … enough already!
#5 see #16 Christians have nothing to do with what has become of the Easter holiday. It’s just another perversion, taking advantage of peoples wallets in the name of capitalism. Who needs Valentines day, if you love her so much, show it every freaking day!
Poor Mr. Edwards. I wonder if his rump is kosher?
You Deniers…
No Marshmallow Chickies For You!
#14 Whole Foods. No hormones.
I also would not eat commercial, hormone infused chickens that grow to adult size in 8 days.
This is why Pedro has tits.
@#14 Not just cultural. Also a question how meat tastes which is directly related to their eating habits. Rule of the thumb – carnivores do not taste good. Yes, if there is starvation and there is nothing else you can eat cats and dogs but there is no need to eat BS otherwise. And it is not only carnivores, some waterfowl also has disgusting taste…
As for rabbits, I miss wild ones taste from back overseas. Whatever they ate made the meat taste as it is infused with spinach. American (raised or wild) rabbit just lacks that note and is quite like chicken.
Lived next to a rabbit farmer in Chico. Old gal would give me a few to BBQ on the weekends. One of the best darn meats around and for me second only to squirrel!
#22 – Morramm – Was just thinking the same thing. But was afraid of pissing off Mr Perkel. Used to go out with my trusty .22 and bring home a bag full for dinner. Didn’t care for rabbit much. Now that might have been ’cause where I lived we had lot more jackrabbits than cottontails. Now, I live in SE Asia and any small mammal might end up on the plate. Some non-mammals, too! Squid on a stick, anybody? Or, how about a bag of toasted roaches? Mmmm, salty!
#23 – lobsters are just bugs with better advertising!
Nobody – True. I admit to some apprehension years ago when visiting Louisiana and my hosts promising me a big batch of mud bugs for dinner. I had no idea what to expect…
#21–dusanmal==I agree rabbit and frogs and rattlesnake all tend to taste like chicken==probably slightly more tender and more about the sauce that goes with it.
But, do carnivores taste different from herbivores? I’ve had bear, alligator, rattlesnake, dog==to me it was “just meat.” The whole function of metabolism is to turn the food source into protein/muscles. I’ll bet that chemically there is no difference between carnivore and herbivore and any taste difference if there is any is something else?
How abut grass fed vs corn fed beef?
We are in the area of “taste” and expertise in this area is more imagined than real, all too individual based. Blind taste testings show this all the time: 99% can’t tell shit from shinola whereas 1% can tell you what day it was produced.
One of the best things I ever ate in my whole life was my mother’s rabbit stew. Mmm-mmm!
#26 – predators generally have stronger tasting meat. They typically live longer and accumulate chemical compounds from their prey.
That’s why we like Tuna and Salmon but also why polar bears are poisonous.
The main reason we don’t eat predators is that it doesn’t make economic sense. You grow 1000tons of grain to feed 10cows then feed those to a single lion and try and sell the lion meat for a profit!
“basting your bunny”–that sounds like a euphemism for something.
We are in the area of “taste” and expertise in this area is more imagined than real, all too individual based. Blind taste testings show this all the time: 99% can’t tell shit from shinola whereas 1% can tell you what day it was produced.
The whole rabbit connection to Easter, is about as sketchy as Santa Claus is to Christmas. Maybe even sketchier. Being that it’s also Spring, the rabbit is thought of as a symbol of reproduction. Blah! But commercially, it been an excuse to sell chocolate bunnies and candy filled plastic eggs.
If Easter is really tied to any food dish, it would be fish. I’m not familiar with what kinds of fish are native to the middle east. But I suspect that almost any fish will do. Except Catfish (just because I hate it). Which the Jews probably wouldn’t have eaten, if it were available to them back in 30 AD. Catfish are probably considered “unclean” scavengers, like swine. Crabs and lobsters too. But I not going to condemn anyone who really want to eat them, for Easter.
I have to wonder if eating Ham for Easter wasn’t something one of the Popes cooked up, a long time ago, to offend the Jews? I think a fish dish would not only be more respectful of others religious restrictions. It would also be a lot healthier. Unless it’s deep fat fried.