# 24 hour resting period...



## VickieB (Jul 28, 2013)

I am heading to my daughter's in MS; she is having her first baby! But, I had 15 rabbits that were 12 weeks old tomorrow, and my son is taking care of the rabbits. I decided to dispatch all the 12 week olds and get them into the freezer so he would have 15 less rabbits to take care of. After cleaning them I decided to cut them up into pieces and freeze them that way. I put them the first 7 into the freezer while working on the last 8. Afterwards I remembered that they have to have a 12 to 24 hour resting period. I quickly pulled the ones out of the freezer, which were well on their way to being frozen. If you are freezing your rabbits do you still give them the 24-48 hour resting period before freezing? Will they be tough if they are frozen first?


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## animalmom (Jul 28, 2013)

I've frozen rabbit that wasn't going to get used within a couple days and have not noticed any toughness.  I figure it takes a few hours in the freezer before it is total frozen, or in other words, resting is resting.

I'd be interested in others experience with freezing with rest and freezing without rest.

What say you folk?  Inquiring minds would like to know.  Please and thanks.

Oh, VickieB, congrats on the soon to be here grandbaby.  Let us know if it is a buck or a doe, oops I mean boy or girl, and pictures are required.


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## Moonshine (Jul 28, 2013)

animalmom said:
			
		

> I've frozen rabbit that wasn't going to get used within a couple days and have not noticed any toughness.  I figure it takes a few hours in the freezer before it is total frozen, or in other words, resting is resting.
> 
> I'd be interested in others experience with freezing with rest and freezing without rest.
> 
> ...


3x on the freezer rabbits and 2x on the grand baby! Congratulations!


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## VickieB (Jul 28, 2013)

My soon to be grandbaby is a little buck. This is his mom's first bun. Her twin sister has 3 little bucks. Bucks seem to run in this family. 

I went ahead and pulled all the rabbit out of the freezer and stuffed it into my fridge. I see I could have left them in the freezer! This has been a long day. I dispatched all my 12 week old buns (15 of them), and cut 8 of them into pieces. I thought I would freeze and package all the rear legs together, all the tenderloins together and all the wings (front legs) together. The smaller loin pieces I put in a package to use in a couple of days with a Sweet and Sour Chicken recipe. I hope this turns out well...


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## nawma (Jul 29, 2013)

Congrats Vickie on the new grandson! Grandbabies are the best!, I have a lot better luck with getting tender meat on rabbits of all ages if they rest at least 24 hours. Doubt a few hours in freezer would change that.


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## VickieB (Jul 29, 2013)

So the meat is able to "rest" in the freezer as well as the fridge? I was thinking that I would have to rest it after thawing out, which I would hate to do every time I pulled rabbit out of the freezer to cook. I'm one of those "last minute" cooks, if you know what I mean...


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## sawfish99 (Jul 29, 2013)

We have always taken the rabbits straight from slaughter to packaging to freezer.  The last batch of 10, we decided to age in the fridge.  We will not do that again for the following reasons:
Some of the meat starts to dry out
it is a pain in the butt to make that much room in the fridge (even in our secondary fridge)
we package using chicken shrink bags and the aged rabbits didn't "roll up" as nicely for packaging
There was NO difference in the meat quality.  If anything, the aged rabbits were dryer as noted in the first comment


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## VickieB (Jul 29, 2013)

Sawfish, do you rest the meat after thawing then? Or do you consider the time in the freezer as the "rest" period.


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## Bossroo (Jul 29, 2013)

All animals go through "rigor mortis"   so they have to "rest" at room temperature untill the rigor ( stiffness) pases as the muscles start to relax. It is complete when all muscles have relaxed wich could take 2-4 days.  Keeping an animal frozen does nothing for the muscles to relax the rigor.


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## VickieB (Jul 29, 2013)

That's what I suspected, Boss. But there are a lot of people that say their meat turned out wonderful after freezing...I wasn't certain if they rested the meat after thawing or not, though.


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## elevan (Jul 29, 2013)

animalmom said:
			
		

> I've frozen rabbit that wasn't going to get used within a couple days and have not noticed any toughness.  I figure it takes a few hours in the freezer before it is total frozen, or in other words, resting is resting.


x2

Ours go straight into the freezer and we've not noticed any toughness


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## Citylife (Jul 29, 2013)

I have not noticed any difference.  I say, do what works for you at the time.


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## nawma (Jul 30, 2013)

So you leave your rabbits at room temp for two days? You dont worry about it going bad?


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## sawfish99 (Jul 30, 2013)

I am not at all disputing the science behind rigor.  I always allow large game/livestock to have a few days to hang.  However, with the rabbits and chickens, the meat is so much smaller, I don't see a difference.  

It may also matter that we always slow cook rabbit (mostly out of convenience)


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## Sycamore27 (Jul 31, 2013)

nawma said:
			
		

> So you leave your rabbits at room temp for two days? You dont worry about it going bad?


Nonono, not room temperature. In the refrigerator before freezing is what everyone is talking about with resting rabbit meat.  Left at room temperature a rabbit would definitely be spoiled after a day.

Cheers,
Jessie


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## nawma (Jul 31, 2013)

Thanks Jessi. I was hoping that in the refrigerator was what was meant.


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## Hens and Roos (Aug 3, 2013)

this last time we processed 13 rabbits- they rested in the frig for about 3 days- that is how long it took me to get them wrapped up in freezer paper and into the freezer.  Also wanted to ask what others use to wrap the meat in for the freezer that works well and prevents freezer burn.  The 1st group we processed we used a food saver to bag them- it worked out nice. This time around the food saver wasn't working right and so ended up wrapping in freezer paper.


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## Moonshine (Aug 3, 2013)

Wednesday, we dispatched 6 rabbits and put them in a cooler with ice and water for 48 hours (changing out the water every morning and night) and then I put them in ziplock bags and into the freezer.


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## elevan (Aug 3, 2013)

Hens and Roos said:
			
		

> Also wanted to ask what others use to wrap the meat in for the freezer that works well and prevents freezer burn.  The 1st group we processed we used a food saver to bag them- it worked out nice. This time around the food saver wasn't working right and so ended up wrapping in freezer paper.


We either use 2 ziplock bags or the foodsaver.


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## sawfish99 (Aug 3, 2013)

We had problems with the leg bones puncturing the food saver bags.  Now we use shrink bags that you put chickens into.  When I process, I do not cut through the sternum.  Then we take the back legs and bend the rabbit forward so the back legs are tucked into the chest cavity.  It makes the whole thing almost like a ball.  Put the rabbit down in the shrink bag and dunk into almost boiling water.  It presents a very tightly package rabbit with little chance of freezer burn.


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## Hens and Roos (Aug 3, 2013)

sawfish99 said:
			
		

> We had problems with the leg bones puncturing the food saver bags.  Now we use shrink bags that you put chickens into.  When I process, I do not cut through the sternum.  Then we take the back legs and bend the rabbit forward so the back legs are tucked into the chest cavity.  It makes the whole thing almost like a ball.  Put the rabbit down in the shrink bag and dunk into almost boiling water.  It presents a very tightly package rabbit with little chance of freezer burn.


Where you get the shrink bags from?  We had a few that the leg bones punctured the food saver bags.


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## sawfish99 (Aug 3, 2013)

Hens and Roos said:
			
		

> sawfish99 said:
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http://poultryshrinkbags.blogspot.com/


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## Hens and Roos (Aug 4, 2013)

sawfish99 said:
			
		

> Hens and Roos said:
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thanks, will take a look at the site


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## Beachbunny (Aug 5, 2013)

Thanks for the link have been looking for something to replace the food saver  system.


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