The French Love to Eat This. Why Dont Americans?

[elleng]

'It remains a mystery to me why a delicious rabbit dinner, a habit in France, is such a hard sell in the United States, a meal many Americans would shy away from. This is not to say that you can’t buy rabbit here, but you don’t see it on a daily basis in butcher shops or at the supermarket.

When I lived in Paris about 10 years ago, rabbit was always in the weekly dinner rotation. Every butcher shop has rabbits, fetchingly displayed belly-side up, so shoppers can see how fresh, pink and pristine they are. (Rabbits are sold in the poultry section, but chickens there are actually more expensive.)

My favorite place to buy a rabbit in France is at the outdoor markets, where the poultry stand butchers are invariably women, with sure hands and sharp knives at the ready. Nothing gets wrapped in paper without at least a little trimming.

Quickly cutting up a rabbit is not a problem. “Avec ça?” she will ask afterward, giving you the opportunity to buy something else, some eggs, perhaps. Even if your reply is “Non, merci, Madame,” she’ll tuck a few chicken livers into a plastic bag — a little gift with purchase makes for loyal customers.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/10/dining/rabbit-recipe.html?

White Wine-Braised Rabbit With Mustard

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1018651-white-wine-braised-rabbit-with-mustard

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Because they're bunnies! Who the hell could ever eat a bunny?

[elleng]

2. HAHAHAHA!

And at EASTER!
An early meal of mine/my family's, in Bordeaux at an impressive Chateau (part of Dad's business trip) included lapin. Was GOOD, as I recall.

[dixiegrrrrl]

19. I grew up eating rabbit. Just like chicken, actually, tho I suspect the French add wine.

Grandma had a small farm, and obviously she had learned from HER Mom... and my Mom learned from her,.so it was a natural food item for a lot of rural people.

Now, "porch rabbit"..that was a depression thing I heard talk about in the family...and slightly different.

[tblue37]

29. My Sicilian immigrant grandfather raised rabbits which ended up either

on the family table or sold for others to eat. I don't remember ever eating them. Probably I didn't--because I often visited the rabbit hutches to watch and feed them.

[dixiegrrrrl]

30. It is really hard to tell rabbit from chicken

esp. if the pieces are cooked in something like a fricassee.
Fried, the rabbit is a bit thicker, but that depends on age of both rabbit and chicken for comparison.

[ret5hd]

4. Oh you say that now, but have you seen one decapitate a grown man with one swipe of those incisors??

[longship]

8. "Look at the bones!!!"

Love that scene.

[msanthrope]

25. Um......me. nt

[dewsgirl]

3. Because they're domesticated here, most Americans, I imagine couldn't imagine eating

The Easter Bunny, or any bunny for that matter.

[Phoenix61]

5. There was a contest many years a ago

to come up with a name for rabbit. You don't go to the butcher and buy cow or pig. You buy beef or pork which distances you from the animal. They hoped to do the same thing with rabbit. I don't believe much came of it.

[Squinch]

34. Flopsy? My first thought was "Bugs" but that probaby wouldn't do very well.

[PoliticAverse]

6. Why do they eat dog in some countries but not others? n/t

[hlthe2b]

7. that's nuts.. I protect my wild bunnies as I do my precious doggies--even put out Timothy hay in

winter to keep them going when the snows are continuous.

No, I'm not a vegetarian, but I do avoid most meat.... No rabbit for me.

[Parmenides72]

9. people eat rabbit here.

It is certainly not common in the us, but we aren't at the bottom of the list in per capita consumption either: http://www.fao.org/docrep/t1690E/t1690e03.htm

[PoliticAverse]

13. I've eaten many rabbits in my life. They were delicious...

[Laffy Kat]

10. Same reason I don't eat lamb--they're so damn cute.

At this point, I'm pretty much down to salmon and chicken, and the chicken is getting difficult.

[Squinch]

35. Hard to bond with a salmon, though. They tend to be smug.

[Eugene]

11. It may be a regional thing. Rabbit is part of Southern cuisine.

My dad came from the South, and back in the '70s
he got frozen rabbit from the local supermarket
(Boston area). It tasted good with barbecue sauce.

[elleng]

16. Interesting.

Of course! Have seen rabbit on location in the south on Zimmern's Bizarre Foods.

[luvMIdog]

12. Different customs and rabbits- might seem either funny or horrifying depending on your outlook

My friend brought her mother from overseas. When everyone got in that evening they said " Smells great what's for dinner?" The old woman said " Such luck I found two rabbits in the garden. We're having rabbit." All the children began to cry and freak out because their Grandma had unknowingly cooked their pets for dinner.

[elleng]

18. Oh GOODNESS!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

14. Nooo! Who could EAT this little cutie?

[elleng]

17. Haven't seen any around here, this past year,

and not a shotgun in sight!

[Major Nikon]

23. I wouldn't because it would take too many to make a meal

When I was a kid we used to run old oil cans filled with rocks down the stacked up irrigation pipes in order to flush out the rabbits inside for the stew pot. Those rabbits were much larger.

[Warpy]

15. Bunnies are mostly kid pets here or grown by fiber artists

for their fur (it's combed, not shorn or skinned). While you can find rabbit in ethnic markets in big cities, you just don't see it grown commercially here. Most people who eat bunny grow them, themselves.

[no_hypocrisy]

20. They taste better than chicken.

I'll eat rabbit anytime.

[msanthrope]

26. Cacciatore is supposed to be made with rabbit, not chicken. nt

[Kali]

21. used to be able to find it frozen in the small town grocery store here

I know I made it for my sister's birthday one year within the past 25 years. Lots of rural folks grow their own meat rabbits.

not really my thing, though.

[csziggy]

22. When I was a kid a man who worked for my Dad raised rabbits

He sold the meat and the pelts. Dad brought home rabbit a few times but with four young daughters, Mom was very careful to not tell us what it was. I think she said it was a new kind of chicken. I remember it being good but different when your mouth is ready for chicken.

The same man had been sold some chinchillas to raise for their fur - but he kept his animals in cages outside in Florida and their fur never got very thick plus two chinchillas were not enough to raise very many of the animals. Dad ended getting the chinchillas for us as pet, which was an adventure. Eventually they chewed their way out of their enclosure and disappeared into the local swamp.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

24. I've had rabbit perhaps a handful of times

(the first time in France, as I recall) and liked it a lot. I agree that it's a bit of a mystery why rabbit hasn't become a staple in this country. I think it's at least in part connected to the Easter Bunny myth. I mean, really, who would eat the Easter Bunny?

Rabbit is a dark meat, so those who only eat turkey breast or chicken breast, never the dark meat of those creatures, won't be very accepting of rabbit.

I will also say that while I've eaten rabbit, I've never prepared it, and would feel quite uncertain in that area.

In the end, rabbits reproduce so very readily that they ought to be a staple for meat eaters in this country.

Those of you who are vegetarian, need not pay any attention to this discussion.

[bunnies]

27. No. Just no.

And she can keep her livers too. Blech.

[democrank]

28. I thoroughly enjoy these interesting posts about food/cooking, but

in this case I'll stick with Welch Rarebit.

[Tanuki]

31. Lots of Americans eat rabbit meat. Hasenpfeffer is a traditional favorite

in many communities with German or Eastern European roots. And in my adopted city of Nashville, one of the biggest annual Democratic political events for decades was the Sure Shot Rabbit Hunters Dinner. It made a comeback as a charity event a couple of years ago, only with regular barbecue and not rabbit meat. But the original event featured rabbit....I remember it from my college days.
http://www.wsmv.com/story/25159770/sure-shot-rabbit-hunters-supper-returns-with-charity-event

[HoneyBadger]

32. Horse, dog, turtle, frog, snail, elephant, are all stuff that people eat around the world

That I have tried. Americans are picky. My in laws threw away elk rather than eat it. What a waste. I backed down on one thing. A duck that was a day from hatching. You sort of soft boil it and drink the fluid sac. Good for old people, they can crunch the soft bones.

[MFM008]

33. Noooooooo

I raised pet bunnies.


Noooooooo.

[Vinca]

36. Bunnies are too close to kitties for me.