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How To – joint a rabbit


00:00:04hi I’m Pete from Jamie’s food team and

00:00:07today I’m going to show you how to join

00:00:08to rabbit now this is our rabbit

00:00:14pay for the butcher rap better get rid

00:00:17of that layer I on the board

00:00:20rabbits most often come with a head on

00:00:22it’s not for the not for the this

00:00:25squeamish

00:00:25so don’t look at it if it bothers you

00:00:27first thing we’ll do let’s open up the

00:00:29cavity and look for the awful

00:00:31now the butcher’s already taking the

00:00:33kidneys out so I’ve got them ready for

00:00:35cooking but if your butcher doesn’t take

00:00:37them out then you’ll find them just here

00:00:39and all you do to remove them is pull

00:00:41them out about the size of black grapes

00:00:43very easy pull them I pop them to one

00:00:46side

00:00:46now the liver is still here that’s it

00:00:49and to remove it it’s quite simple take

00:00:54a little knife and you just cut the

00:00:57membrane holding it in place

00:01:00there’s your liver now there’s several

00:01:03different bits to it as you can see and

00:01:06they’re held together by a little bit of

00:01:09gristle so just trim these lobes off get

00:01:14rid of the grisly bit that’s that there

00:01:16and these bits are all good to go so

00:01:20I’ll pop them aside for later get them

00:01:23out of the way and then we’ll deal with

00:01:27a rabbit now as you can see there’s the

00:01:31head here there’s the shoulders then

00:01:35this bit here it’s all a lovely juicy

00:01:38tender meat in it which is the saddle

00:01:40and then it’s got two legs and we’ll

00:01:43show you now how to separate them all so

00:01:46that we can cook them either on a BBQ or

00:01:48in a nice pot roast or slow roast or

00:01:51something like that now obviously this

00:01:53knife is a little bit flimsy for the job

00:01:56which so we need a bigger knife now you

00:01:59could use a big Chinese cleaver to chop

00:02:02these things but really the Chinese use

00:02:05those cleavers because they’re very very

00:02:06good at it very experienced they are

00:02:07very sharp cleavers it’s not the best

00:02:09thing for an amateur cook to use so I’ll

00:02:12show you one way of making sure you cut

00:02:14straight through bone first time with an

00:02:17ordinary knife quite easily and quite

00:02:21safely so the first thing we’ll do is

00:02:23just get rid of the head because I know

00:02:25not many people like to

00:02:26get that so turn away now if you’re

00:02:28squeamish so I’m gonna take a sharp

00:02:30knife chopping knife quite a thick heavy

00:02:33knife hold it in my left hand and put it

00:02:37where I want the cut to be now my right

00:02:39hand I’m going to pick up a rolling pin

00:02:41or a piece of solid wood now if you got

00:02:45a rolling pin to do there spare in mind

00:02:46that you might end up marking it so if

00:02:49you’ve got an old one hanging around or

00:02:51if you don’t want to use your rolling

00:02:53pin and market then just a piece of wood

00:02:54is fine because all we’re going to do is

00:02:56whack it on the back of the knife like

00:02:58that so hold on your knife keep it

00:03:01steady make sure it’s to place you in a

00:03:03cup couple of whacks and you straight

00:03:08through okay job done now we’ll cut the

00:03:13shoulders off so if you pinch the

00:03:15muscles or on the top of the shoulder

00:03:18you’ll find that comes away from the

00:03:21body quite easily and all you have to do

00:03:24is cut like that it comes away nice and

00:03:30easily one shoulder

00:03:37to shoulders

00:03:41so I’ll pop them to one side and then

00:03:46we’ll deal with the legs if you line the

00:03:49rabbit on its back here are the two legs

00:03:52and then really you just free them from

00:03:54the body there’s a joint right here the

00:03:59top of the leg where the where the leg

00:04:02bone joins the main body and just cut

00:04:04right through that it’s quite easy to

00:04:06find a little fiddling around and simply

00:04:09cut around it not that difficult if you

00:04:15cut around the bone it’s really easy so

00:04:19I’ll do the one on the other side there

00:04:29we go there’s your two legs right put

00:04:36them to one side and now we’ve got the

00:04:39rest of the body now these bits here are

00:04:42the belly flaps which look a bit sort of

00:04:46slamming and useless and kind of not

00:04:49where you want to eat but they’re

00:04:51actually really tasty they go very crisp

00:04:53and delicious when you grill them and

00:04:55they go nice and sticky and soft and

00:04:57chewy when you stew them so no sense in

00:05:00wasting them just cut them off and this

00:05:05is really all you do it’s very easy

00:05:07where they join the body you just make a

00:05:14cut then I reckon that’s worth it okay

00:05:18we go

00:05:20those are your belly flaps I’ll put them

00:05:23to one side we’re going to use the same

00:05:26chopping trick with a rolling pin to cut

00:05:29the rest of the carcass up so we’ll make

00:05:32four cuts between here and here the rest

00:05:36is a bit boning and good for stock but I

00:05:38wouldn’t put it in the stew this there’s

00:05:40not that much meat on it so first of all

00:05:43I want to cut about here align my knife

00:05:48felt exactly where I want it to be take

00:05:52my rolling pin

00:05:54a couple of good whacks you cut right

00:05:58through you can just pop that in the bin

00:06:01now they sound I’m going to cut count

00:06:06about three ribs up

00:06:14that’s why I want to meet my car here we

00:06:21go well this is nice for stock it’s a

00:06:26bit big and bony to put in the stew so

00:06:29I’m putting that in the bin and here’s a

00:06:32metal bit of a rabbit so I’m going to

00:06:35make another three cuts into four even

00:06:39bits that’s about right

00:06:41if you press the knife down onto the

00:06:43meat make little indentations and you

00:06:46can measure out how you think it should

00:06:49be cut make yourself a little guidelines

00:06:51like that without actually cutting

00:06:53through just the tip of the knife when

00:06:55you’re happy with them say how about

00:06:57cutting them exactly the same way there

00:07:12you go now see how nicely and evenly

00:07:16that’s cut if you were hacking away at

00:07:21this you’d have to give it four or five

00:07:24nice chops and then the back want to be

00:07:27splintered the view bits of bone in your

00:07:28food it’s not good and it would be

00:07:31really ragged and ugly looking but this

00:07:33is just the easiest way to do it piece

00:07:36of cake so there are is your saddle here

00:07:44are your belly flaps gear your shoulders

00:07:50two legs and awful and that’s how its

00:07:58join the rabbit

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