Bunny ciao
A Cape farm is bringing rabbit meat to a braai fire near you. By Richard Holmes
ALL I can smell is a faint whiff of ammonia, with a touch of mustiness. The concrete floor has been washed clean and there’s not much noise, bar the sound of lucky feet shuffling about. For a rabbitry holding 7 000 live rabbits, I’m surprised.
But then Coniglio Rabbit Meat Farm on the outskirts of Cape Town is all about changing mindsets. For a country that loves its meat, South Africans have been slow to catch on to rabbit: a white meat that’s low in fat, high in protein and approved by the Heart Foundation. We may be new to the world of rabbit hinds, fores and saddles, but, surprisingly, it is the fourth mostslaughtered animal in the world, after chicken, duck and pork.
“We’ve spent a lot of time and money breeding the market instead of breeding rabbits,” jokes Coniglio director John Falck. “The hospitality industry has been a huge supporter and that’s mostly where our products are going at the moment.”
They’re hoping that will change, though, as Coniglio’s range of products are now available in selected supermarkets countrywide. This includes rabbit sausage, rolled roast, potjie portions, kebabs, mince and the wonderfully named Hopper Wings. Buffalo wings are so last season.
Making life easy for chefs has been key to growing demand for rabbit meat, as traditionally rabbits have been sold whole with their heads still attached. Why? Well, and there’s just no way to put this delicately, because they look like cats when skinned.
Practicalities aside, the degree of separation between tasty potjie and household pet is another stumbling block local farmers have had to overcome.
“What people don’t realise is that these are special meat rabbits,” says Falck. “We’re not farming your average pet-shop bunny. We use large breeds like New Zealand reds and whites, agoutis and Californians.”
And they’re hefty animals, as Falck shows by lifting a full-sized male buck from its cage.
If I was taken aback by the lack of smell, I was also surprised by the fact that rabbits are farmed in individual cages, spacious and clean with a little room to hop about. But where’s the wooden garden hutch we raised our childhood bunnies in?
“Rabbits need to be farmed in cages because they pick up disease very easily,” says Falck. “We do have three free-range projects going, but at this stage we haven’t found a recipe to successfully breed them free-range. We have a limited amount of free-range meat available, but it gets snapped up quickly.”
With the buck back in his cage, the conversation turns to breeding, and I’m desperately trying to avoid the obvious jokes.
“We take the doe to the buck’s cage and use the natural ability of rabbits to breed,” says Falck diplomatically. “Thirty days after mating, the doe gives birth and in another 30 days the kits are weaned and go into grower cages. Does can reproduce eight or nine times a year, producing around eight kits at a time: there’s no other animal that can multiply its body weight that efficiently.”
And the growth rates are astounding. Fed a diet of alfalfa, lucerne and grass in pellet form, just three months after birth, a rabbit — now a hefty 2,5kg — is ready for the pot.
It’s traditionally the pot that rabbits have ended up in, but Falck hopes Coniglio’s range of products will take the rabbit out of the potjie and onto the braai fire.
“A potjie is fantastic but the best way to cook rabbit is on the braai; as long as you have the right cut and know how to cook it. A rabbit has three different sections — the fronts, the hinds and the saddle — and each needs to be cooked differently.”
“The fronts are the most flavoursome, but they’re the chewiest so you need to cook them slowly and for longer. You can also marinate them in yoghurt, wine or lemon juice to tenderise them. The hinds are the most popular and are the meatiest part of the rabbit. The loins and saddles are the best cut though. Grill them for four minutes on high heat: you have to cook it quickly otherwise it’ll be dry. But cook it right and it’ll melt in your mouth.”
Visit buyrabbitmeat.co.za or e-mail info@buyrabbitmeat.co.za