Wild Rabbit

[Martin Fisher]

It's not unusual for wild rabbit to have an odor.

Soak in salt water.

[Mjx]

When I was a kid and lived in place where people shot and ate game, including rabbits, all the hunters emphasized the importance of field dressing to avoid what was generally described as an 'unholy stink'. Since you saw it gutted before your eyes, this obviously wasn't done, and I'm not sure whether there is anything that you can do to remedy the situation; it's certainly worth a go, but you may need to get rid of it and chalk this up to experience.

[jmacnaughtan]

Were there spots on the liver? Was it government inspected? Something seems amiss. I'd give it one last chance by koshering

The liver looked fine, so did all the flesh- no spots, no discoloration, just the smell. I think it may have been the bile gland. I've rinsed and salted it, and once the legs/shoulders/loin came off the body (and the rest hastily thrown away) and rinsed again, the smell pretty much dissipated.

Here in France, you have to have a special government permit to sell wild game, so I imagine the butcher was certified. I've bought a fair amount of game from him before, so I consider him fairly trustworthy.

When I was a kid and lived in place where people shot and ate game, including rabbits, all the hunters emphasized the importance of field dressing to avoid what was generally described as an 'unholy stink'. Since you saw it gutted before your eyes, this obviously wasn't done, and I'm not sure whether there is anything that you can do to remedy the situation; it's certainly worth a go, but you may need to get rid of it and chalk this up to experience.

That's interesting: all the game birds I've seen around here aren't dressed at all before sale, just at the last minute. They pluck and gut them to order. I thought that when you prepared game, you hung it undressed?

[Plantes Vertes]

Were there spots on the liver? Was it government inspected? Something seems amiss. I'd give it one last chance by koshering

The liver looked fine, so did all the flesh- no spots, no discoloration, just the smell. I think it may have been the bile gland. I've rinsed and salted it, and once the legs/shoulders/loin came off the body (and the rest hastily thrown away) and rinsed again, the smell pretty much dissipated.

Here in France, you have to have a special government permit to sell wild game, so I imagine the butcher was certified. I've bought a fair amount of game from him before, so I consider him fairly trustworthy.

When I was a kid and lived in place where people shot and ate game, including rabbits, all the hunters emphasized the importance of field dressing to avoid what was generally described as an 'unholy stink'. Since you saw it gutted before your eyes, this obviously wasn't done, and I'm not sure whether there is anything that you can do to remedy the situation; it's certainly worth a go, but you may need to get rid of it and chalk this up to experience.

That's interesting: all the game birds I've seen around here aren't dressed at all before sale, just at the last minute. They pluck and gut them to order. I thought that when you prepared game, you hung it undressed?

I had heard the same thing, specifically relating to rabbits, and the person I spoke to also described the smell as 'worse than andouillette'.

[Mjx]

When I was a kid and lived in place where people shot and ate game, including rabbits, all the hunters emphasized the importance of field dressing to avoid what was generally described as an 'unholy stink'. Since you saw it gutted before your eyes, this obviously wasn't done, and I'm not sure whether there is anything that you can do to remedy the situation; it's certainly worth a go, but you may need to get rid of it and chalk this up to experience.

That's interesting: all the game birds I've seen around here aren't dressed at all before sale, just at the last minute. They pluck and gut them to order. I thought that when you prepared game, you hung it undressed?

Game mammals were always field dressed before hanging (I don't recall rabbits ever being hung for any significant period of time).

[David Hensley]

In my own experience, we always gutted in the field, aged in the shed, and ate in the kitchen.

Was this game shot, or commercially raised? I only ask because I know that truly "wild" game can be quite different from farmed animals.

Also, how long did you carry it, before you got home with it?

[jmacnaughtan]

In my own experience, we always gutted in the field, aged in the shed, and ate in the kitchen.

Was this game shot, or commercially raised? I only ask because I know that truly "wild" game can be quite different from farmed animals.

Also, how long did you carry it, before you got home with it?

I asked and was told that it was a truly wild one. Judging by the blood on its neck, I imagine it was trapped rather than shot, but I could be wrong about this. It spent maybe half an hour with me in the metro before I got home, then it was in the fridge until the evening, maybe around 7 hours.

After re-rinsing, searing and slow-cooking, the smell almost completely disappeared. I took a chance and tried it, it tasted OK, so I think it must have been the offal that was causing the stink. Even though I'd normally use rabbit liver and kidneys, I chickened out of using these ones.

Although, after all that, I'm not sure wild rabbit is any tastier than farmed- it didn't seem to taste much different, and was just tougher. Maybe I'll try hare or boar next time.

[annabelle]

Hare is very strong in flavor as is boar.

Re: gutting wild rabbit. We always cleaned them at home and they had been shot, not snared.