Smoking Rabbits

[travis]

Smoking rabbits for the first time today. Did some research on here and jumping in feet first!

 

[millerbuilds]

Travis-

Welcome to the Forum and I am excited to hear about the Rabbits.  I have not smoked rabbit in years, be careful as it can dry out a bit, If they are wild you may want to brine them first.

Smoke ON!

- Jason

 

[travis]

I've been taking pics during the process so far but haventry had any luck uploading them from my phone....

I have Oklahoma Joe horizontal smoker. Cooking chamber temp is 280 F. I added a small container of water to offer some humidity. I soaked the rabbits in a brine mixture I read from this site: 1 qt water, 1 qt apple juice, 1/4 cup kosher salt, 1/4 cup brown sugar. Soaked overnight. Rinsed and dried then spiced. Next wrapped them in bacon. Inserted probe in thickest part of rear leg/hip. Been smoking for 2 hrs and internal temp is up to 145 F.

 

[SmokinAl]

I'm looking forward to seeing this.

Hope you figure out how to upload the photo's.

I just upload from my PC.

Al

 

[mowin]

Smoked bunny is sooo gooood. What ya using for wood? I usually use apple or maple. Good idea on drining them. Adds moisture and flavor.

 

[travis]

Using charcoal sprinkled with apple wood chips. Every once and a while, spray with apple juice.

 

[mowin]

Using charcoal sprinkled with apple wood chips. Every once and a while, spray with apple juice.

Sound like a good plan. Looking forward to the qview. :drool

 

[travis]

The rabbits turned out fantastic. The combination of the overnight brine soak along with the bacon wrap kept the moisture in the meat. The meat almost fell off the bone when plated. I maintained a cooking chamber temp of 275-300 F for 4-1/2 hrs and reached an internal temp of 160 F. I smoked 4 rabbits that weighed 2-1/4 lbs each.

 

[pc farmer]

Sounds great. I use photo bucket to load pics here. You have a account?

 

[mowin]

I dont have a photo hosting account, and I post photos from my android phone. Dont use the paper clip icon , right next to it is a box that looks like a mountain range. Click that box and u shoud be all set.

Oh ya... good job on the rabbit smoke. Now post some pics..

 

[travis]

Here's the smoker prepped to smoke.

20160717_092317.jpg

• travis
• Jul 18, 2016

 

[travis]

This is how I loaded the fire box. I purposely left the front left corner empty so u could dump a chimney of lit coals in there to get everything going. This allowed a slow burn of the rest along the cook. I added coals once.

20160717_092332.jpg

• travis
• Jul 18, 2016

 

[travis]

Here is pic of the water I added to the smoking chamber.

20160717_092350.jpg

• travis
• Jul 18, 2016

 

[travis]

Here are the rabbits soaking in the brine mixture.

20160717_100229.jpg

• travis
• Jul 18, 2016

 

[travis]

Rinsed, dried, oiled, and spiced.

20160717_102654.jpg

• travis
• Jul 18, 2016

 

[travis]

All wrapped up!

20160717_103118.jpg

• travis
• Jul 18, 2016

 

[travis]

Beginning of smoke.

20160717_105538.jpg

• travis
• Jul 18, 2016

 

[travis]

End of smoke.

20160717_145927.jpg

• travis
• Jul 18, 2016

 

[travis]

Finished result!

20160717_162451.jpg

• travis
• Jul 18, 2016

 

[Bearcarver]

Finished result!

20160717_162451.jpg

• travis
• Jul 18, 2016

Looks Great Travis!!

----

I'd love some of that.

The Rabbit man on this forum was always "XJCamaro".

I'll give you a link to one of his. Then if you want to see more, just click on his Name, then go to his "Threads Started"---He made a lot of Rabbits from Western PA.

Link:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/94967/memorial-day-weekend-smoke-rabbit-qview

Bear