# Do you hang your rabbits?



## a7736100 (Jun 4, 2009)

I read in a cookbook that after butchering they should be hung for 2 days with their fur.


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

NO....James


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## Forty Acres (May 14, 2007)

I let them hang for about five minutes.


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## KimTN (Jan 16, 2007)

After I have cleaned to rabbits, I do put them in the refrigerator for at least 3 days before I put them in the freezer or eat them. It really helps to tenderize the meat. In Europe, the butcher hung them in the window with the fur on for a few days. I live in the south. It is too warm here to hang anything. Up north, I would hang game in a cool shed where the meat wouldn't freeze.


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## redneckswife (May 2, 2013)

No. Well I hang my rabbits upside down to skin out, but I do not hang my rabbits with fur after culling for length of time:happy2:

I process my rabbits like I do any other game.

With that said..when I was a kid and we lived in Colorado and dad killed a deer, sometimes (depending on if he had to clean my mother & brothers also) his deer would hang in our garage upside down for 1 day but only because he ran out of time to process his. It was really dark and cool in the garage and it was fall in Colorado(nice really cool temps).


I'm not sure what the reason would be letting it hang with the fur for a couple of days. Maybe somebody else knows the reasoning or idea behind this.


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## TheDerek (Mar 5, 2013)

It depends a lot where you live, when you hang a rabbit in cooler climates, it ages the meat. Good beef is often aged for 30 days, but temperature is important. I needs to be near freezing, but not frozen. If its too warm bacteria will grow and ruin the meat, if it freezes the enzymes that break down the collagen in the meat wont work. When I shoot a deer, if the temperatures are right, I will let it hang a week to 10 days before butchering, expecially it its an older deer. Another option that works well for me with deer is to remove the meat from the bones and place in a cooler, with a rack on the bottom to keep it elevated and throw a bunch of ice on top of the meat, leave the drain for the cooler open so as the ice melts the excess water/blood will drain out and let it set like that for 3 to 5 days. This will work if the weather is too warm to hang the meat and would work for rabbits also Im sure.


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## sarmour (Aug 29, 2013)

We never hung rabbit even in the US in cooler climes. Seems sort of like hanging a chicken...(no one does that, right?)

Here it's totally out of the question. I can hardly keep meat from going bad IN THE FRIDGE! Too warm and humid. We get our meat very fresh and sometimes a bit tough, but all beef is grazed.


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## Forty Acres (May 14, 2007)

redneckswife said:


> I'm not sure what the reason would be letting it hang with the fur for a couple of days. Maybe somebody else knows the reasoning or idea behind this.


A deer that has been skinned & left hanging for a few days will dry out. The meat will form a hard crust on the outside. 

If it is hung with the hide intact the meat will remain moist. 

Slaughterhouses skin & hang, but they control the temperature and humidity.


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## redneckswife (May 2, 2013)

Thanks forty acres...I just meant I didn't know what the idea or reason for hanging a Whole carcass after a kill instead of dressing it out immediately was. Sorry, I probably wasn't clear about that(but I have 2 small helpers on the computer with me today,lol:smack).

Thank you all for educating me. I did used to know a butcher who liked to purchase the "brown" looking steaks from the store he worked at(he said that aged beef tastes better, and the bonus is it is usually reduced). So in hind sight from what he had said, that information makes sense that some would prefer it..


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## TheDerek (Mar 5, 2013)

you would want to remove any entrails before hanging, but can leave skin on to keep meat from drying out.


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## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

I don't hang anything, nor do I let any meat 'rest' in the fridge in a brine or anything. Not enough room in a fridge (we do like 30 fryers or 50 chickens in a day... lol). We've never had ANY meat ever be 'too tough'. Or any complaints, for that matter. I think it's a waste of time/space. If you want to, then that's fine - I don't think it's necesary though. We do hang DURING butchering but a fryer takes me about 5 minutes... so not hung long.


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## redneckswife (May 2, 2013)

We got a 2nd deep freeze just to put fryers in, poor hubby..he's dressing out 40 fryers today and it's 20 degrees out there(glad one of the boys is home today to help).I'm just meeting them at the door today with their pans of water with dress outs to bag,lol. He's always been fast and efficient, but boy he's smoking right thru them today..wonder if the cold has anything to do with it


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## redneckswife (May 2, 2013)

They go to the freezer tonight and new "owners" tomorrow,lol,lol.


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