Why choose rabbit?


Rabbit meat is light, healthy, low-fat, tender and also very tasty.

Rabbit is best known as winter stew, such as according to grandmother's recipe or with plums, but is also suitable for a light vegetable dish, a tajine or for a summer barbecue. Rabbit is also very suitable for cold dishes.

Rabbit meat can be braised in different ways:

• steam in a saucepan with a cover or in a pressure cooker;
  
• bake in the oven or a pan;
  
• steam;
  
• wok and stir-fry;
  
• grill on the barbecue;
  
• braise in the microwave.
  

Today's rabbit offer anticipates the demand for ease of use, short preparation times and half-cooked meals, with an emphasis on healthy and tasty food.

The latest rabbit products are fillet, chops, haunches, filled parts and half-cooked meals or conveniently packed, traditional dishes which only need to be warmed up.

Rabbit, a healthy choice


Anyone who chooses rabbit is absolutely right. Rabbit meat is low-fat, easily digestible and has a relatively low content of saturated fatty acids and cholesterol. Recent research by the Vakgroep Dierlijke Productie of the University of Ghent shows that rabbit meat has an average fat content of 8.8%. This is good news. Food experts use a value of 10% as the limit between low-fat and fat meat types. Rabbit meat is clearly under that limit.


All dishes

Rabbit is best known as stew according to grandmother's recipe, with plums, applesauce, small onions, bards or seasoned to taste with a local beer. Perfect for cold autumn and winter days. However, rabbit is also suitable for today's light cuisine, which is dominated by steaming and wokking and where the microwave is a handy tool. Rabbit on the barbecue or in a tajine is also well-suited. In other words, a figure- and heart-friendly dish is also perfectly possible with rabbit.

Low-fat meat

The fat content of rabbit meat varies between 4.7% and 12.5%. The haunches contain little fat and the front quarter contains the most. The average fat content of an entire rabbit is 8.8%. By removing the visible fat, the fat content is reduced to no more than 4 to 5%. This is already the case with rabbit which has been cut to pieces.

Moreover, the quality of the fat in rabbit meat is favourable due to a relatively low content of saturated fatty acids, namely 38.4% of the total amount of fat and more unsaturated fatty acids, of which 27.9% singly unsaturated and 31.3% multiply unsaturated fatty acids.

A balanced fatty acid composition

Rabbit meat also contains more 'healthy' fatty acids in comparison with other meat types. linolic acid, an omega-6 fatty acid and alpha linolic acid, an omega-3 fatty acid. These are essential fatty acids which our body does not produce itself and which have to be introduced by means of nourishment. Rabbit meat has a favourable ratio of linolic and alpha linolic acid. The ratio is 4 on average and thereby fully meets the recommendation, being 5 or lower.

The cholesterol content of rabbit meat is on average lower than 50 mg per 100 g meat, which is excellent.

Easily digestible

Bred rabbits are slaughtered young, when they are 12 to 13 weeks old. The meat of these young animals is tender and contains little collagen. The meat also remains tender during preparation. That is why rabbit is an easily digestible piece of meat.
A rabbit dish is mainly easily digestible when the recipe does not contain any 'heavy ingredients'. The use of much cream, butter and fat bacon makes the dish more rich in fat and less digestible. A light and healthy recipe is preferable.

Nutritional value of rabbit meat

S.F.A.: saturated fatty acids
S.U.F.A.: singly unsaturated fatty acids
M.U.F.A.: multiply unsaturated fatty acids
C18:2: linolic acid omega-6 fatty acid
C18:3 alpha linolic acid omega-3 fatty acid