# Canning rabbit



## Wendy (May 10, 2002)

For those that are leary of canning meat, here's what it looks like when done.

View attachment 19313


I cooked the rabbits & pulled the meat off the bone. I do not want bones in my meat & rabbits have some fine, splintery bones. Put the meat in jars, covered with the broth I had cooked them in, & canned them. I also decided to use my Tattler lids & they worked really well. I like them.


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## Cajun Arkie (Jun 11, 2012)

Very nice. What is the ratio of rabbit to jar. I am ordering rabbits soon and have no idea how many jars they will fill. Have canned other meat but never rabbit. I have ordered a dozen rabbits and they are always fairly good size but not huge.


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## Wendy (May 10, 2002)

I cooked up 54 rabbits & ended up with 39 quarts of meat. It usually takes a couple of rabbits to get a quart of meat, but I tend to let my rabbits get a little larger than most people do.


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## Vosey (Dec 8, 2012)

Beautiful! 

I love the creepy look of home canned meat (especially the meatballs), but your rabbit doesn't even look creepy!


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## K.B. (Sep 7, 2012)

Wendy said:


> I cooked up 54 rabbits & ended up with 39 quarts of meat. It usually takes a couple of rabbits to get a quart of meat, but I tend to let my rabbits get a little larger than most people do.


Are you only using certain cuts or do you cook and then debone the whole carcass?


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## PlicketyCat (Jul 14, 2010)

I can normally fit a 6 lb (liveweight) fryer (about 10 weeks old) in a quart after deboning, chunking and cooking.


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## Cajun Arkie (Jun 11, 2012)

I probably need to order a lot more rabbits!!! Thanks


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## PlicketyCat (Jul 14, 2010)

A couple rules of thumb I found helpful when estimating canning yields for homegrown meat: 

a pound is a pint (and a quart is 2 pints or 2 lbs)
deboned dressed weight (i.e. "retail cuts" of meat only) is about 50% of liveweight (except cattle & moose, which are closer to 25% because of the bigger bones)
ETA: if you precook and hotpack, you can get a bit more in the jar because the meat shrinks -- I can fit a 6 lb fryer in a quart hotpacked, but only a 4-5 lb fryer in a quart raw packed


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## Wendy (May 10, 2002)

> Are you only using certain cuts or do you cook and then debone the whole carcass?


I cook them & debone the whole carcass.


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## PlicketyCat (Jul 14, 2010)

Just checked my records from the last batch of rabbits I canned. I had 12 fryers for a total liveweight of 70.25 lbs, just under 36 lbs after dressing and deboning, and I canned 11 quarts and 12 pints.


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## K.B. (Sep 7, 2012)

Thanks to both of you for the help with the numbers. It's been a few years since I've raised rabbits. Never got large scale enough to do much canning with them. I'm hoping to get back to it within the next year or so.


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## blueox (Jan 2, 2014)

This may be a silly question, but.....how are you cooking them prior to canning them?


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## Wendy (May 10, 2002)

I just use my largest stock pot, put the rabbits in, cover with water, & cook until the meat starts falling off the bones.


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