Section 1 introduction
Nothing tastes good like a harvested rabbit cooked over a fire. Only outdoor enthusiasts get to enjoy harvested rabbits cooked over a fire considering rabbits are neither offered on sale in local grocery stores nor in butcher shops. Bearing this in mind, its best to learn how to cook a rabbit over a fire because you never know when you will be required to cook a rabbit during a backpacking or camping exercise.
In this guide, we are going to look at the best way to cook a rabbit over a fire. We will also explain what rabbit meat tastes like, but before that, we will look at steps one follows before cooking a fresh rabbit. Note this post will cover everything from the dressing to preparing the prey for cooking.
Section 2: Basics
Before you starting cooking a rabbit over a fire, one should make sure they carry out field dressing and prepare the rabbit for the fire.
Section 2.1: Field dressing the rabbit
Field dressing a rabbit refers to the process of skinning it and removing internal organs. This step is vital before cooking as there is no way you can cook a rabbit over a fire with fur. Luckily, field dressing is a simple process you can carry out on your own by following these simple steps.
Drain blood of the Rabbit– once you have harvested the rabbit you want to cook, the next step should be draining its blood. This can be done by making a large cut near the hear using a sturdy knife. Insert the knife where the skull meets the neck. Once you cut the neck, hand your rabbit over a bucket by its hind legs to drain of blood.
Section 3: Techniques/ Tips to improve
Once you drain the blood of the rabbit, the next step should be preparing the rabbit. This is not a complicated task, but one should not preparation is vital to improve the process of cooking a rabbit over a fire.
Section 3.1: Skinning the Rabbit
Skinning your prey should be best done when it is still warm as allowing it to become stiff and rigid might complicate the process. Also, waiting too long for skin, the rabbit increases the chances of contaminating the meat. Start by preparing clean space for the skin. Let space be in your base camp to avoid complicating the process. Make sure you use a clean knife that is rust free and also rinse the carcass before skinning to remove any contaminants off the rabbit’s fur.
The feet do not have any meat in them so it bets you begin removing the feet at the ankle knuckle. Once you have removed the feet, make a small cut in the fur along the back of the animal. To simplify this, grab the skin near the shoulders of the rabbit and lift the skin up and away from the carcass and muscle. The cut should run across the backbone and should be large enough to allow your fingers to penetrate.
Use fingers to penetrate the fur “hook style” and exert pressure in the opposite direction. One hand should pull the rabbit’s head down while the other should pull towards the tail. Keep doing this until the fur is connected at the neck only. Once all the fur has been removed to the neck, twits the rabbit’s heat until it comes right off.
Section 3.2: Excising the Rabbit’s Organs
At this point, you should have a headless, skinless and footless carcass, and the next step should be removing the rabbit’s internal organs. Here one should turn the rabbit’s belly side up and make a small incision. The sure the skin is far away from the organs until the cut as reached the rib cage. This being the first step, removing organs becomes a simple and clean process.
From the rib cage, proceed up to breast bone, leaving the rabbit open. When making the cuts, be precise to avoid piercing the colon or urine sac to avoid contaminating the meat. With the body cavity open, slowly pierce and pull away different organs at a time.
For the best results, we highly recommend that you start removing the urine sac before scooping out other organs. The sac is a small yellow balloon close to the rabbit’s anus. If you desire to cook any organs such as the heart or the liver, place them out separately but we highly recommend you discard all internal organs to avoid complicating the process.
Rinse the rabbit to remove “goo” and excess blood to make the final product taste better.
Section 4: Correcting Common Problems
Once you have removed the rabbit’s internal organs, one should not cook it over fire immediately but instead follow an outlined procedure to butcher and prepare it. This is a step most people causing problems in the outcome.
Section 4.1: Butchering the rabbit for cooking
Before your rabbit is ready for a fire, use a boning knife to remove any occurring sinew and fat. Rabbit is lean animals, and thus the process should not take you long. Depending on your preference, you can cook the rabbit with or without the silver skin.
For best results, we advise that you prepare your rabbit in a spit. This cooking method screams primitive, but you can be sure you will end up with a mouthwatering meal.
Section 5: Analysis of the Best Practices in the Industry
Step 1: Start by soaking your rabbit in brine to remove any gaminess. If you do not have access to brine, you can ahead to use salt and water. Next, you should find a sapling about 1 inch in diameter and find branches that are straight on one end and “Y” shaped on the other. Stick the straight ends into the ground in a way the “Y” shaped ends will face each other-running parallel to each other.
Step 2: Building the campfire
For best results, since you can’t carry your grill into the wilderness, one should make sure they use a fire that will burn hot and low providing minimal flames and lots of heat.
Step 3: Season your Rabbit
This step is not a must, but if you have access to basic spices, you can go ahead to season it.
Step 4: Cook and enjoy your rabbit
Cook your rabbit over a fire for 20-45 minutes depending on its size.
Section 6: Tools you can Use
When cooking a rabbit over a fire, having the following tools at your disposal simplified the process
- Brine
- Boning knife
- Sturdy knife
- Fillet knife
- Butane torch
- Wood
Section 6.1: Final Thoughts
Cooking a rabbit over fire does not have a complicated process if you know the right steps to follow. This guide is straightforward and will help you achieve a tasty rabbit, no matter what. A key thing to note is to always use a fire that provides minimal flames and maximum heat for best results.