Rabbit Reminisces, or Culture clash

[jjquantz]

DW and I were reminiscing over dinner tonight and the subject of rabbits came up. Growing up, each of our families ate rabbit occasionally, the difference is that hers, as she said, "Came in a Pel-Freez bag" and mine was served with the warning, "Look out for the shot pellets."

The first time DW came to visit my folks, while we were still in college, a dressed squirrel was soaking in the sink. I still don't know how I won her over after that.

Anybody have stories of cultural mis-matches in your joint lives?

 

[Walt34]

I like machines that go fast and are sometimes perceived by others as dangerous, like single-engine airplanes and motorcycles. DW most emphatically does not. I've owned a motorcycle for the last five years. She has ridden on it, reluctantly, twice.

On her birthday several years ago I arranged for a friend to fly us over her hometown in a Cessna 182, regarded as pretty much the general aviation "station wagon". She had flown by airliner once, never in a small plane. I sat in the back seat to give her the other front seat view. On the way back my friend, who was flying, dropped his glasses on the floor and said to DW "I can't see without my glasses. You're going to have to land the plane".

Oh, how I wish I'd had the foresight to bring a camera, any camera! The look on her face was priceless, with eyes as big as cake plates.

 

[jjquantz]

The only time I have flown on a single engine craft was when I was working at BigOil and we were doing some reconnaissance for exploration in southern Louisiana. This was in the middle of the summer and, between the heat, the turbulence, the fuel fumes and the pilot doing low-altitude passes over our field crew, I came awfully close to losing my cookies. That day pretty much took care of the random thoughts I had of getting a pilot's license.

 

[haha]

DW and I were reminiscing over dinner tonight and the subject of rabbits came up. Growing up, each of our families ate rabbit occasionally, the difference is that hers, as she said, "Came in a Pel-Freez bag" and mine was served with the warning, "Look out for the shot pellets."

The first time DW came to visit my folks, while we were still in college, a dressed squirrel was soaking in the sink. I still don't know how I won her over after that.

Anybody have stories of cultural mis-matches in your joint lives?

When I was 16-17 traded gutted but unskinned rabbits for beer at a country store. I also took some home to my mother, who sometimes fried it but more often made hasenpfeffer, one of my all time favorite meals.

My former wife was much more upscale, but she liked all this country stuff anyway.

Ha

 

[ERD50]

I've heard the stories that my Grandparents and Grand-uncles raised rabbits, and it was a routine meal for my Mom when she was a kid. Oddly, these were the city-side of the family, I guess a cage of rabbits wasn't a big deal on a city lot (in the garage maybe?) back then.

My Grand Uncle would also talk about hasenpfeffer, I bought a frozen rabbit last year, but when I read the hasenpfeffer recipe, it sounded like something I should taste before I try it myself. A fair amount of vinegar in the recipe.

I had rabbit a few years back served in a cream sauce, and it was wonderful. The one I cooked was so-so, tasted something like turkey to me.

-ERD50

 

[audreyh1]

A rabbit hangs out in our yard all the time. But I don't plan to catch it for dinner.....

DH grew up eating squirrels.

 

[Accidental Retiree]

View attachment 21281Just passing through. Not for the table.

 

[brewer12345]

When I was 16-17 traded gutted but unskinned rabbits for beer at a country store. I also took some home to my mother, who sometimes fried it but more often made hasenpfeffer, one of my all time favorite meals.

My former wife was much more upscale, but she liked all this country stuff anyway.

Ha

These days country dishes are often regarded as gourmet, albeit with the addition of outrageously expensive ingredients. The recently concluded small game season was relatively thin on squirrels, but I whacked the heck out of the rabbits. I have been trying all kinds of new dishes and some of them are pretty much the same as those made by as a gourmet cook friend who lives on the East Coast and buys her game and exotic meat at a crazily expensive boutique.

 

[Sunset]

We have a family camp,
on an island,
no electricity,
no running water,
no phone/cell service,
cook by wood stove,
outhouse is the toilet,
we used to use ice boxes (big blocks ice) but we upgraded to a propane refrigerator run by 100 lbs tanks I drag across the lake behind the boat (they float full/empty).

I'd spend all summer there as a kid growing up, I thought everyone left the city in the summer

DW grew up in a major US city, so when I took her up there she had some major adjustments to make, I keep our trips to 1 week as that seems to be her limit

 

[audreyh1]

View attachment 21281Just passing through. Not for the table.

That's what my back yard looks like every morning. A little cottontail.

 

[audreyh1]

These days country dishes are often regarded as gourmet, albeit with the addition of outrageously expensive ingredients. The recently concluded small game season was relatively thin on squirrels, but I whacked the heck out of the rabbits. I have been trying all kinds of new dishes and some of them are pretty much the same as those made by as a gourmet cook friend who lives on the East Coast and buys her game and exotic meat at a crazily expensive boutique.

Rabbit is quite popular in France. And one of DH's more memorable Cajun dishes enjoyed in Louisiana was "smothered rabbit", i.e. rabbit stew.

 

[FIREd]

My wife is always disgusted when we go to our butcher shop in France because they usually have a couple of rabbits for sale, gutted and skinned, but with the head still on. Rabbit with Dijon mustard, delicious...

 

[mpeirce]

For some reason there seem to be fewer rabbits in our yard lately...

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

After having rabbit while attending the Air Force survival school, I am pretty sure I won't be eating that again any time soon. Although, the DW's Dad is an avid hunter and we do have some pretty tasty "natural" meat on occasion.

 

[2B]

I raised rabbits as a 4H project. I sold them door-to-door and had a fair number of regular customers. I don't know how many rabbit necks I have broken or skinned. We would also hunt rabbits but I never sold them. I think I made more money selling the rabbit droppings to local gardeners than rabbit flesh. I tried to sell the skins but the quality requirements weren't really achievable for a small operation run by a middle schooler.

We cooked them just like chicken -- fried, baked, boiled. After we got married, DW made some rabbit soup from a couple of rabbits I shot. She didn't want to tell our oldest daughter (toddler) it was rabbit but DD figured it out. She kept asking for more rabbit while DW was deboning it.

 

[jjquantz]

Hunting access

It looks like there are still some hunters out there. Growing up in the '60's and 70's, a fairly significant portion of our protein came from wild sources, especially venison, rabbit, squirrel, and quail. Dad also ran trot lines in the Mississippi and we ate lots of catfish and carp - supplemented with bass, bluegill, and walleye when he would do something more resembling sport fishing.

The hunting really dropped off after about 1980, in part because Dad didn't take good care of himself and, even in his 40's, couldn't or wouldn't put forth the effort. But, perhaps more importantly, he found it harder and harder to find hunting land and getting permission from landowners to hunt. We lived on the outermost edge of the St. Louis metro area and land development just kept shrinking the available hunting land.

Some of you clearly still have access.

 

[LoneAspen]

I definitely count myself as a member of the Carnivore Club, but doubt I could ever eat a rabbit.

Probably because my favorite book is Watership Down.

 

[HFWR]

Have definitely eaten rabbit, and an assortment of other wild critters, though not regularly, as none of my immediate family were hunters.

Culturally speaking, I have one leg in the "good ol' boy" camp, and the other in the "sophisticated city fella" camp, so I don't actually fit in anywhere...

 

[jjquantz]

Have definitely eaten rabbit, and an assortment of other wild critters, though not regularly, as none of my immediate family were hunters.

Culturally speaking, I have one leg in the "good ol' boy" camp, and the other in the "sophisticated city fella" camp, so I don't actually fit in anywhere...

I feel for you. Grew up the first and have enjoyed living the 2nd. But I don't feel fully comfortable in either.

 

[GravitySucks]

We have a family camp,
on an island,
no electricity,
no running water,
no phone/cell service,
cook by wood stove,
outhouse is the toilet,
we used to use ice boxes (big blocks ice) but we upgraded to a propane refrigerator run by 100 lbs tanks I drag across the lake behind the boat (they float full/empty).

I'd spend all summer there as a kid growing up, I thought everyone left the city in the summer

DW grew up in a major US city, so when I took her up there she had some major adjustments to make, I keep our trips to 1 week as that seems to be her limit

No phone?
No lights?
No motorcar?
Not a single luxury?

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