# Memorial Day Weekend Smoke......Rabbit!.......Qview!



## xjcamaro (May 31, 2010)

Are you guys getting tired of seeing my rabbit smokes yet?.................................I didnt think so.

So here is what we got. My wife and i went up to Tionesta, PA to my father in laws camp, with my father in law. The camp is on a lane where everyone knows everyone when they come up to camp so the whole weekend is just like a giant block party, about 18 people. So after the first smoked rabbit i had my father in law taste during rabbit season a couple months ago he was dieing for me to do a big batch of rabbit. So we took 6 1/2 rabbits worth of meat (26 peices), This was also the first rabbit smoke in my new Char Broil propane smoker that i got to eat (i did 4 peices for my brother in law earlier but never tasted it)

Here is what I did, i brined the rabbit in a simple poulty brine with cajun seasoning over night saturday night. I then rinsed the peices off and wrapped them in bacon, except four legs, i ran out of bacon, but they were fine. I then put them in the smoker at 230-240* for 2 hours with hickory wood. They came out perfect! Nice and juicy, and the bacon was just right too, not too crispy and not soggy. So i took the pan of peices from our camp where i smoked it to the next door camp where we were eating. Well needless to say, it was like throwing raw meat at a pack of wolves, that 26 peices of rabbit were gone in no more than 5 minutes! I even got some city slickers that came up with one of the camp owners that just turned there noses at rabbit to try it and they agreed it was awesome. So that was the hit of the night and the talk the morning, so i think ive been recruited to being th annual rabbit cooked for the Memorial weekend at camp.

We also deep fryed 2 whole turkeys and one turkey breast, i wanted to inject them with something cause i had my injector with me, but never got to it, and they turned out fine. We had alot of meat!

So without any further delay....here is the Qview!

Right out of the brine and rinsed off.








All peices wrapped in bacon.







Rack of backstraps wrapped in bacon.







Rack of legs wrapped in bacon.







In the smoker.







All done!







Another successful rabbit smoke, the best one yet!

And i was told there is one more batch or rabbit in the freezer from this past season so i will have at least one more rabbit thread before the fall hopefully!


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## lepcur (May 31, 2010)

Looks mighty tasty to me, good job.   Mike


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## fftwarren (May 31, 2010)

aw man, I gotta try that next year. My GF's dad is an avid rabbit hunter. I'll have to get him to get me one or two for the pit. That looks GREEEAT!!!


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## dalton (Jan 10, 2011)

well hello there.

I realize this is an older thread but I saw the link in your signture on a different post and decied to take a look.

I put a little over 100 alaska snowshoe hares in my freezer this fall.  so far I have been making jerky and stuff and never really thought obout smoking the legs and back straps in the smoker.  after reading this I will need to get some bacon and give it a try. 

thanks for the inspiration.

dalton


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## xjcamaro (Jan 10, 2011)

dalton,

you will not be disappointed with the smoked rabbit. In my opinion, if i have the chance to smoke rabbit, i will not eat it any other way. The flavor is just awesome! If you like rabbit now, you will love it after smoking it. It makes it 100 X's better!

Please let me know and post pictures if you do it. I would love it see other do it the same way i do it.


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## beer-b-q (Jan 10, 2011)

Looks good,  been a while since I have had rabbit....


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## shoneyboy (Jan 10, 2011)

That looks like some great rabbit. I smoke one last week whole and I never thought about rapping it with bacon. I did brine it over night. It came out awesome, I don't think I have ever tasted a rabbit that tender, juicy and smoke!!! ! I will try wrapping it with bacon next time. I found a local butcher that sells them for a reasonable price.I just need to make a run again and pick up several more....


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## dalton (Jan 11, 2011)

xjcamaro,

have you ever tried making any jerky out of it?  I have made several batches now with a couple different spice packages and they all turned out great.  so far the family favorite is when I grind it up and mix it with some ground beef and use the jerky gun to make "slim jim" size sticks.  they are GREEAAAT!!

I am curioius though, when you smoked it what internal temp did you pull it at?   and what was in your "basic poultry brine" .  I have yet to do any poultry in my smoker but would like to get into that too!


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## xjcamaro (Jan 11, 2011)

As far as cooking temp, i treat it like poultry, cook to about 165* internal. Ill have to dig for my poultry brine. I know i grabbed it from someone else on here. Ill have to look for it.

I have not made jerky out of it. We really dont get a whole lot extra rabbit to play with. By the time we get enough to cook up a batch its just enough. i would love to try some other stuff with rabbit, but i would feel really bad ruining a batch of our already thin stock of rabbits.

And this years season isnt going so good. We only got a few in the fall, and all this snow is hindering the process now in the late season which is open now till the end of february.


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## delarosa74868 (Jan 12, 2011)

Are the pieces just personal preference, or can you smoke whole rabbits?  I found a guy that sells them cleaned and ready to cook here in town, I was thinking of giving a few a try.


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## xjcamaro (Jan 12, 2011)

Its just my personal preference, when we go hunting and shoot them, obviously they are whole. At the end of the day, i rinse off all the rabbits and cut the back straps off and the rear legs. Front legs usually arent any good due to our shooting skills! lol

So that just makes it easier. But if you get them whole, go for it. it might be tricky wrapping them in bacon, but you can make it work.


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## dalton (Jan 20, 2011)

I am sure that you can cook them whole.  like xjcamaro I hunt them and we get as many as 20 in a good day of hunting.  so when its time to put them away in the freezer I cut off the back legs, the back straps and the front legs and there isnt really much left after that.  I didn't used to take the little tenderloins but now I do because when you have a bunch they make the BEST jerky!!! it takes a few extra minutes to get them and you have to have a quite a bit to make anything worth while but when you do they are great.  I bone out the front legs to grind up for my snack sticks and slice the back straps cross grain for jerky bits and cook the rear legs for meals.  but hey thats just me!!

this year we got over 100 to put in the freezer so I took my bag of "damaged" legs and ground it up and mixed with ground beef and some spices and packaged in 1lb bags like hamburger.  I have used it in spegetti, burgers, stir fry, tacos, and even meatloaf.   they all turned out great!!


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## Bearcarver (Jan 20, 2011)

XJC,

That Wabbit wooks Awesome!

I can't think of a better way to make it!!!

Thanks for the views!

Bear


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## xjcamaro (Jan 21, 2011)

Holy Cow! 100 rabbits! I would be in my rabbit glory. Right now we are lucky if we have 20 total. But like i said, the weather has not cooperated and we deffinately dont have the amounts of rabbit we usually have at this time. And i guess my shooting skills could be to blame. This past weekend the dogs ran 5 rabbbits past me and i missed every one of them. That and my glove kept getting caught in my pump messing up my follow up shots! We still have about a month of rabbit season left so hopefully we can get some better rabbit weather and we can get more for the pot so i can get you guys some more Q-view!


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## dalton (Jan 22, 2011)

ya they are pretty much everywhere by our cabin.   we are actually hunting hare not rabbit.  they change color and for a short period they are all white in a brown world.  they sit just inside the tree line and think you can't see them.  we just pop them in the head with a ,.22 from about 60-80 yards away.   save all the meat that way! 

dalton


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## xjcamaro (Jan 22, 2011)

Well since we have 0* weather here today it seems like all my hunting buddies wussed out this morning, so no rabbits today. We hunt cotton tails, get a couple dogs to root around in the brush and out they come. Hard to see them in the fall cause everything is brown like the rabbits, but after you get some snow on the ground its awesome. But too much snow and they cant move around in the deep snow, so they dont wander too far from their hole. But if you get the conditions just right, like a slight warm up the day or two before and then real cold the night before, the snow gets a hard crust and they can run on top. The best day i ever had was with snow with a crust on top so hard that it would support my weight. The rabbits were like fleas in this field. We just stepped foot into the field and the rabbits were just running everwhere in every direction, we didnt even need the dogs. Needless to say, we got alot of rabbit that day.


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## thesmayway (Feb 25, 2012)

Last day of the PA rabbit season and 4 of us shot our limit. Looks like I have plenty to try this out with


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## xjcamaro (Feb 25, 2012)

Good for you. We went out and out of three of us we came home with one. But we have plenty from the rest of the season to smoke. I didn't get my first rabbit of the season until last week. I was using a "jinxed" gun. My wife jinxed it last year and I didnt shoot a rabbit since until last week.


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## sergei d (Sep 15, 2012)

That looks really good, have yet to try, am building a ssmoker, Brick with steel door 2cubic meter for bulk smoking...


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