Smoking Rabbit – A Comparison of Two methods

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BlueTang recently posted an article at www.bbq-brethren.com on his method of smoking rabbit. He had to listen to me raving about smoked rabbit from SB, so BlueTang had to give it a try to see how his turned out. If/when you read the article over there, keep in mind that my handle over there is “Kazion”.

The short version is that he brined some domestic rabbit (provided by me) with a commercial product, Hi Mountain Buckboard Bacon cure, a product that I’ve written about before. He then smoked it off, yielding a similar, yet unique product from what SB produced.

I was given some to try out (as I should have been, being his unofficial taste tester). I enjoyed BTs version every bit as much as SBs, but it was definitely different.

You can see the dry texture of the "skin"
You can see the dry texture of the “skin” on BlueTang’s dry cured smoked rabbit

 

Here we see almost no "Bark" and the moist end result of SB's smoked rabbit
Here we see almost no “Bark” and the moist end result of SB’s smoked rabbit

Both had a wonderful smokey flavor, and were slightly salty. SBs version had a almost no “bark” but had a moist texture throughout. BlueTang’s rabbit was the end result of a 5 day dry cure, thus was a drier product. So while the starting line was the same for both, the path to the end product was vastly different, and therefore, so was the end results.

Honestly, I liked them both. SBs smoked rabbit, utilizing a wet brine method, made for a nice “sit down meal” type of portion, while BlueTang’s dry cure method made for a vastly superior “grab-n-go” road food – it was less messy.

I enjoyed both of batches of smoked rabbit, and hope for many more batches from both of my friends. I’m also hoping to have both of my friends finally meet each other, since they have many things in common – both are locals…both have a love for the old Florida ways, both are very well versed in a multitude of things that I want to learn….

….and both have excellent taste in friends.

 

All joking aside, both guys make an excellent smoked rabbit. I don’t know that I could name a winner if they were to compete…

But if I did have to pick one, which do I prefer?

 

Having thought it over, I now realize that the answer is obvious….

 

 

 

 

 

The one that is being made next….and that I get to sample 🙂

 

Peace,
db

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