Hasenpfeffer

Jk…. I agree with the assessment I hear most often which are meat rabbits are cleaner, quieter, easier to keep, don’t take too much room and on and on. The big issue here personally, is I don’t like rabbit meat. I wondered if there is a specific meat rabbit that has the most mild flavor. Not gamey in the least if possible?

I have no experience eating rabbits as we keep them as pets.

I have eaten a jack rabbit, though in stew.

How have you had rabbit prepared?  Did you prepare it or someone else?

Maybe like with deer it has something to do with the way the rabbit was gutted and dressed?  Was the meat aged?

I have only ever eaten farmed rabbit in restaurants when we holidayed in France annd Malta, almost 30 years ago. Had I not ordered it especially, I would have found it indistinguishable from free range chicken thighs or drumsticks, not a hint of gameyness.

Since moving to Otago, I am often given wild rabbit that friends shoot that I skin and butcher myself. I always soak them overnight in brine to draw out any blood and that also helps to tenderise the meat.

I have never found the meat to taste gamey, the rabbit is usually cooked on a low and slow heat, having been marinated in wine or vinegar before cooking. The simplest dish that I prepare is simply slow cooked rabbit in white wine, bay leaf, lots of garlic, black pepper with a dash of oyster sauce.  

The meat is stripped off the bones and served with pasta.

Another favourite recipe is similar to the Silver Palate chicken Marbella but simpler - white wine, vinegar, prunes, thyme, brown sugar, bay leaves and long slow braise.

Even wild rabbits have a very mild flavour, unlike hare which tastes like liver to me.

I urge you to try cooking rabbit - any chicken recipe works well with rabbit, just be prepared to extend the cooking time.

I second everything Megan said - interesting to me, considering we're on opposite sides of the world. I grew up on a mixture of game & farmed animals, including both game rabbits & our own farmed rabbits. I do prefer the taste of the game over farmed, but enjoy both, and raised my kids on both, as well.

As far as flavor & texture distinction between various farm-raised rabbit breeds, I can't address that. I don't recall us raising a specific breed, for meat, though at one point, we had roughly 150 of them (large family & we sold some). I remember a wide variety of colors, though.