Kaninchenbraten Mit Hausgemachten Spätzle (Rabbit With Pasta)

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Last  week I bought myself a rabbit at my neighborhood supermarket. As I was about to prepare it, I started to think about the animal in my hand’s and about how we humans love and respect some animals, while we disregard the majority of most species as soulless, feelingless Beings, which have no other purpose in life as to serve us in any which way we want.
We humans like to think of ourself as getting tougher as we get older. For the first 50 years of my life this was mostly true for me. However, for the past few year’s I have realized that the process has started to reverse itself, at least when it comes to being tough to other beings. Truth is, I have gotten very tough to myself as life and circumstances have hardened me over the years, but when it comes to the way I treat and feel towards others, I’ve become a soft pussycat. To illustrate my point, here is a little story from my past, triggered by this little rabbit:

When I was about nine years old, I begged my dad to allow me to breed rabbit’s in our back yard, so I could sell them to our neighbors as sunday roast for 10 german marks a pop. My dad gave me permission under the condition that once he build the cages for me, the rest of the operation was to be my complete responsibility. This meant purchasing the first pair, gathering the food (cutting clover from behind our house) and feeding them, keeping the cages clean and –  butchering the animals. In these day’s, the way to do this was to hold the animal by it’s ear’s and whacking them in the neck with a honing steel to break the neck. Growing up in the country side, we kid’s saw animals being butchered up close all the time, so there was nothing unusual about it, no second thought’s. So I had this little business going for about a year, after which I became interested in other stuff and had no more time for my rabbit’s, which by that time had grown to a population of about 40, as they multiplied faster than I could sell them :-).
Later in life as a professional cook, butchering animals was a common task while I was younger, so again, not many second thought’s about it. However, during the past few year’s I have become a different person, with different feelings and opinions. Although I am still an advocate of the practice of eating meat and seafood, I am horrified of the way the livestock industry has developed. The way animals are raised, kept and butchered is for the most part a shameful, horrifying, mind boggling heartless, soul-less affair, for which everybody involved should be deeply ashamed.
So here is my point: While I had no problem as a kid to slaughter an animal with my bare hand’s, this would be completely out of the question now. I would sooner cry my eyes out before I could harm a helpless animal for my own gain. I have no illusions that I will give up meat and seafood consumption at this time in my life, but I pray everyday that the circumstances of breeding and butchering animals will improve to a level where we as humans don’t have to be ashamed anymore of the way we treat livestock, from it’s birth and trough it’s life until it’s (hopefully) merciful death.
I would appreciate some of your comments and opinions about this. If you do comment, please do so directly on the comment part of my blog, not trough Linkedin, FB or other links, so we can all share our thought’s in this important matter.
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Click here for “Hausgemachte Spätzle” recipe
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Braised Rabbit In Merlot/Sour Cream Sauce With Homemade Schwäbische Spätzle

Braised Rabbit In Merlot/Sour Cream Sauce With Homemade Schwäbische Spätzle

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15 comments

  1. Pingback: Kaninchenbraten Mit Hausgemachten Spätzle (Rabbit With Pasta) | hanssusser

  2. I too have had a change, about 10 years ago, growing up in the Midwest our family was deer and pheasant hunters. Apron moving to the west I became more of a bird hunter, but then it hit me as well, to harm another animal for my gratification, I no longer could do it. I ‘am a Chef as well and butchering fowl, poultry game was part of the business, plus my father was a butcher by trade. I understand we need some of these proteins in our diet, but as humane people we need to cut way back until the industry can produce and kill in a humane way. I do believe animals have a souls, I find myself angry when I here of how people treat animals. As a Culinary Instructor I try to teach my students the importance of life in all aspects, I also let them know that I do not support business that do not have humane practices in place when it comes to the raising and care of the animals until time. Thank god there are more people out their with caring beliefs.

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    1. My brother and I hunted cotton tail rabbits with shot guns as we were growing up in eastern Wisconsin. We always ate what we shot. We harvested the game in the most humane way possible. Our mother used these rabbits to make the world’s best hasenpfeffer. It was our usual Christmas dinner, far surpassing poultry, beef, or whatever less fortunate families had to eat. Her recipe used a white sauce of some type. Unfortunately this was one of her recipes that we did not transcribe so it was lost with her. We admire our cousin Dean and all he does.

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      2. Do you have any recipe suggestions? We think Mom’s recipe involved using a roux with vinegar, cloves, and who knows what else. We think the rabbit was boiled in a mild vinegar solution until it was nearly falling off the bone, then it was blended with the roux, and heated for a while. The other thing to know is that Mom was a master of German recipes that she learned from her mother and mother-in-law. We NEVER had pasta in the house. and precious little rice. It was all meat or fish, potatoes, and garden vegetables.

        You are our final hope. Please ….

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  4. I grew up in Texas and we raised ducks, chickens, and calves for the table. I was also brought up hunting; dove, duck, quail, rabbit, and deer. I no longer have the land for raising my own livestock, so I buy from local farmers. When it comes to hunting, I believe that taking responsibility for “harvesting”( killing) animals for their meat is an important part of being a meat-eater. If I eat meat, I should be willing to take that animal’s life myself. I have an issue with people who say that the problem is solely commercial farming practices. Yes, that is a part of the problem, however, I feel the larger problem is the disconnect between the animal as a living being and the final product. How can the average citizen see the problems inherent in a CAFO when all they see is a black styrofoam tray with a steak on it. if more people were able to see the actual animal and know that it had lived a full life before being “harvested” then perhaps they would be more interested in changing commercial farming. Until we can somehow reconnect that steak with it’s source, the general public isn’t going to care how it got on their plate, they will only care about the monetary expense of that steak. I say monetary value because unless you hunt, you will never know the full “price” of the meat in your meal.
    sorry about the disjointed rant, I get excited and think faster than I type

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  5. Dear John, I mostly agree with you.
    However, I just wanted to share how I myself feel about the issue and how I and my sentiments have changed over the course of sixty years 🙂 Cheers

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  6. I also grew up in Texas on a farm (shot and cleaned a quail by myself when I was 10; my mom wanted me to throw it away ‘cos it took me so long, but I was definitely going to eat it to not waste it) and I always knew where my food came from, as my girls, who have grown up in CA, also know. I eat much less meat & seafood now than in the past decades, and I will only buy humanely raised, usually organic or grass-fed, sustainable meat, which is the type I grew up with. CAFO’s are a crime, in my opinion. And the laws that have popped up to protect this type of abuse are even more criminal.

    I have a lot of respect for chefs such as Chris Constetino in S.F. who strives to use EVERY bit of the animal to not waste it’s sacrifice, and has butchered an animal, with tears, to understand what he works with every day. You’re right, John, about the disconnect between the animal and the black styrofoam tray. On a personal level, if I were in a position to raise animals, I would be hard-pressed to butcher and eat them. But I use (and eat) every part of the animal that I can get my hands on.

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  7. I grew up on a working ranch. We raised our own beef, pork and chicken, which we butchered, wrapped and ate everything but the squeal, mow or cluck of the animal. We hunted and fished ONLY for only what we would eat. The killing of any creature was done with the precisely and with upmost care. I was taught from a very early age that all the animals we would raise were to be treated kindly and fed with the best products and on holidays they were to be given extra. The cattle grazed in open pastures, the pigs had a large area to wander in, and the chickens, geese and ducks were allowed to wander freely in their own area which included our large garden (awesome bug control). When I was very young, my grandparents, (who live next door), gave raising rabbits a try. This was a onetime experience do to the butchering process they use, by which they rung the rabbit’s neck while the rabbit cried. HORRIBLE childhood experience and memory!!!! (GOOD NEWS: After only 2 rabbits were killed, the remaining “bunnies” were taken to a new home where they became pets. Rabbit became the only meat that was purchased and brought back to the ranch.

    It sickens me to know the conditions in which some animals are raised, cared for and slathered, yes “the” harsh word; “slathered”. There is a huge difference between raising an animal with care and respect for your food and killing them quickly and precisely, THAN raising them in horrible, horrendous, filthy conditions and slathering them in a horrible and horrendous manner. The is NO excuse for raising or killing animals in such unacceptable ways!

    Now, could I and would I be able to raise an animal for food and kill that animal (with the exception of rabbit). Absolutely. But, I would do so in the manner that I was taught and raised by, with kindness, care and respect for the animal. I would use every part of the animal in creating some awesome meals! That’s my opinion, and I am sticking to it!! =) Ciao, DD

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  10. Paul,
    for Hasenpfeffer one usually uses Game (wild rabbit), and its blood to thicken the sauce.
    You can also use domestic rabbit and use pigs blood (check with your butcher).
    Other than that, you can use the same recipe as in my post of “Kaninchen Braten”
    P.S.
    At home, we called it “Braten”, although it is actually braised.
    Hope this helps 🙂
    Cheers!
    Hans.

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