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NOSE TO TAIL-Uses For Every Part Of The Domestic Rabbit

I’m an advocate of using every part of an animal. It’s not as much about frugality but that I feel a responsibility not to waste anything. It’s a challenge to figure out what to do with a whole animal, though, and I’ve found that learning how to butcher and use all the parts of a rabbit is a good way to start. Rabbit is the gateway to butchering: it’s readily available, small enough to handle, and its anatomy scales up to the anatomy of a pig or a lamb. If you can butcher a rabbit, you can butcher the bigger animals, too; The cuts are the same. I make many dishes out of rabbits it is a delicious way to utilize the entire animal. The leg and shoulder meat becomes a seasoned stuffing; the bones are boiled for stock; and the rest of the rabbit is roasted. From a purely ecological standpoint, when you look at the amount of land and food it takes to raise large animals like lamb, you see that rabbit is a sustainable item that’s healthy, versatile, and not expensive, especially when you buy it whole or raise it yourself. Here are the uses i have found from nose to tail-

The rabbit head and brains are eaten, and there are many recipes using both the rabbit head and brains for example Rabbit Head Pasta and Spicy Sichuan Rabbit Head, are just a few, but heads are traditionally used in stews and stocks. The brains can also be used for brain tanning the pelt. Dog owners feeding their pets a raw food diet supposedly love giving the heads to their dogs.

The ears of the rabbit can be dehydrated and used for dogs treats. There are also recipes for rabbit ears such as deep-fried rabbit ears with aromatic herbs served with an apricot ginger chutney

The pelts of the rabbit can be used to make blankets, hats and other assorted clothing to keep warm or as a added fur fringe to clothing for a fancy look

The bones can be boiled and used to make a great tasting stock and rabbit jus.

The heart, kidneys, and livers are very nutritious and tasty, to eat alone or used in a rabbit pot pie or for stuffing, there are also recipe’s available for these

The Lungs though technically legal to sell for human consumption, no chef, or farmer we spoke with had heard of using rabbit lungs in cuisine. But i have heard that they can be dried to make dog treats!

The blood of the rabbit can be used to make blood sausage, blood pudding and there are more available recipes. Rabbit blood can be used to thicken sauces and make charcuterie. If you do not want to eat the blood you mix it with sawdust and it makes a great soil additive or add to the compost

The offal guts and other left over butchering scraps can be fed to dogs, cats, pigs or also put in the compost pile. Rabbit offal(the guts,internal organs,and non-flesh soft parts)are prized food in some cultures. They can be ground with a household meat grinder and used to make sausage, haggis, pate’, or other tasty tidbits. First choice is to feed carnivores. Zoo, fur farm, or your own pets. A pig will probably eat it. Muscovy ducks and chickens run to the offal piles at butchering time! If you have a lake handy, or raising fish in a aquaponics setup a good second choice is to put the offal in wire baskets above the surface of the lake away from shore. Insects eat the offal, they or their maggots fall into the water and feed fish or crawfish;or collect and feed to chickens. This is a standard way of getting rid of fish offal in southern lakes, don’t see why it wouldn’t work for rabbits . Third choice is a compost heap with due attention to insect nuisance, odor, and animal attraction

The rabbit feet can be used with the offal or made into lucky rabbits feet by drying

The rabbit’s tail has been used for centuries for pollinating flowers, by attaching the tail to a stick and going from the male flower to the female flower transferring pollen

These are the uses i have found for using the rabbit from nose to tail if you know more please let me know i will add to this post!

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