Initially considered “small game” animals, rabbits, and their cousin hare, have been both hunted and bred for consumption throughout the world since ancient times as far back as 1500 BC.

Old World rabbits were native to North Africa and Spain, spread around the globe with human exploration, and despite the current popular narrative, knowledge of their domestication is still a mystery according to Dr. Greger Larson, Director of the Palaeogenomics & Bio-Archaeology at Oxford University. He maintains “The historical evidence credits the Romans with the earliest written records of rabbits….The archaeological evidence shows that rabbits were hunted during the Palaeolithic…attempts to date the timing of rabbit domestication using genetic methods was clouded by uncertainty in the mutation rate.” He advises readers against the popular misinformation that rabbits were domesticated in the 5th Century by the monks of the Champagne Region in France. It may be true that French monks kept rabbits in cages as a readily available food source and experimented with selective breeding for fur, color, and other traits, but the story “all over Wikipedia and the web… is a complete house of cards’.

Regardless of their origins, domesticated rabbits’ breeding and farming became widespread throughout Europe in the Middle Ages, came to America along with European settlers, established a large wild population, and were mostly hunted in the wild until the late 19th century.

During the two World Wars, governments in both Britain and the United States encouraged people to keep rabbits at home as a source of food, both for themselves and their soldiers. Initially meant for consumption, it became more common to keep rabbits as pets at home which encouraged their connection with kids, cuteness, and a romantic attitude that persisted to this day and made it quite controversial and contentious to consider rabbits as a table offering. Even though eating rabbits is quite common in the Mediterranean, especially in Italy and France, they are also responsible for the highest production and consumption of rabbits in Europe.

Rumor has it that a rabbit resurrection is underway here in the USA with the realization that rabbit meat is the best for sustainability because of its small carbon footprint and less environmental impact compared to livestock, which requires a wide habitat range.

Rabbits don’t require much space to keep, and for the same amount of feed and water, as cattle consume to produce one pound of meat, Rabbits produce six. They are easy to raise and breed like well, you know, rabbits, making them a viable solution for food shortages and ideal for do-it-yourselfer carnivores. If that wasn’t convincing, Rabbit meat is quite lean, in fact, having so little fat makes them drier, needing simmering or braising in stews as the best cooking option.

Rabbit meat may taste somewhat gamy to some people, but for the most part, it is sweeter, and more delicate than chicken, with a bit more depth of flavor.
To sum up, being environmentally friendly, easy to raise, and produce tender white meat that is considered nutritious by the USDA, eating rabbit meat should be a no-brainer, especially considering that this lean, delicately-flavored meat has all the versatility of chicken and can replace it in any recipe.

Follow this Provencal recipe from Provence, in southeastern France bordering the Mediterranean Sea, and famous for foods like Ratatouille and the use of garlic, onions, tomatoes, and mushrooms, which we made ours with smoking and changes in herbs to better complement rabbit meat.

”Eeeh, What’s up, Doc?” Rabbit meat’s for dinner, so say yur pwayers wabbit. ~ Elmer Fudd