Bunny boiling
Posted on February 26th, 2008 by Jackie Danicki
Rabbit is one of those meats I have eaten and enjoyed, but I can’t think too hard about the fluffy creatures while I’m eating it. I also don’t have the constitution to cook one up myself. (Not so for escargots, which are so divine that even thinking about slimy garden slugs and snails isn’t enough to put me off. I have them as often as possible, have helped make them, and cannot pass them up if they’re on a menu. This from the girl who once refused to eat mock escargots - made of mushrooms - because they’d been served from actual snail shells. The proof really is in the eating.)
Anyway, after reading how Mike made lapin au vin, I still don’t think I’ll be boiling any bunnies myself in the near future.
Filed under: Life
I have heard many wonderful things about escargots, and I am not a person who shies away from eating…well, anything, but I just cannot get past the part where the delicious meal started out life as a snail. To not make me want to vomit, they would have to be the most mind-bendingly delightful things, not a hint of slime or earth, and they could absolutely not be the tiniest bit rubbery OR gelatinous.
I’ve always wondered, would salting them turn a pricey starter into a plate of foam? :grin:
Well, they are cleaned and then the meat stuffed in the shells with herb-y, garlicky butter. There is no slime or earth, but they do have a bit of bite to them (some might call them “chewy”). Really, they taste like the most glorious mushrooms. So I guess you could just eat mushrooms. That would certainly be cheaper.
Jackie, the same could apply to many different foods: a friend of mine won’t eat pheasant, because her family keep them as pets.
I there’s an aspect of cognitive dissonance for most people here: we know that the meat on our plate came from an animal, but we don’t really want to believe it, because the animal is so cute… Perhaps it’s more that rabbits are kept as pets so commonly… I doubt Madsen’s lamb hotpot - made from cute little lambs - would elicit the same vague feeling of discomfort.
I can do bunny, my lady does a mean gorgonzola rabbit, I can’t do veal though. By the way Jackie if you have not yet made it down to Rabbit Hash you should.
Mike, cuteness isn’t the problem for me with rabbits. What bothers me is how similar they are to rats.
Rabbit Hash? Somehow I hadn’t heard of that until now.
Jackie, how are the rabbits we eat simillar to rats?
They’re of the Leporidae family, about 50 species, of rabbits and hare. Leporidae and Ochotonidae make the Lagomorpha order; one of the orders that make up the class mammalia. There is, in some cases, a similarity in appearance, but - for the most part - vast genetic differences; rats are of the Rodentia order.
Oh, Mike, you credit me with thinking that is far too logical and rational. In my head, rabbits are similar to rats - similar enough to gross me out. There’s no talking me out of it!