Rabbit

(Music plays) Hear me out.

Rabbit is the meat of the future.

As long as we can get past that whole cuddly, pet thing.

(Theme Music plays- The Avett Brothers "Will You Return") I'm Vivian and I'm a chef.

My husband, Ben and I were working for some of the best chefs in New York City when my parents offered to help us open our own restaurant.

Of course, there was a catch.

We had to open this restaurant in Eastern North Carolina, where I grew up and said I would never return.

(Theme Music plays) (Theme Music plays) So this is my life.

Raising twins, living in the house I grew up in, and exploring the south, one ingredient at a time.

(Music plays) Previously on A Chef's Life.

Give us a smile.

Hi.

Today is the first of 14 days of shooting photos for the book.

You know, I'm trying to allow Justise and John to collaborate, to come up menu items.

It's a lot more on me and a lot more on Justise because we have to come up with things that make sense for our concept that are also fun and a little bit different and new.

We're very excited to start off the Carolina Meat Conference.

We have a lot of folks from all over.

All the way from Washington State to Montana to Chicago so we're really excited to have us all here together.

(Applause) Because of our meat driven palate here in the Southeast, North Carolina has a tremendous number of small scale, sustainable meat farms.

We have so many in fact that we have a conference to support it.

So, we're at the North Carolina Choices Sustainable Meat Conference and we're about to slaughter and fabricate some rabbits and teach people how to do it and I'm gonna talk about cooking rabbit and using the whole rabbit.

And this guy, Adam Danforth is like a major expert on the subject.

I've been paired with Adam Danforth, a renowned butcher and author and it's odd for a butcher to recommend for people to eat less meat but that's his mission.

He wants people to eat less meat and eat better meat.

Are you gonna participate in the killing?

You want me to do the second one?

You can... You wanna do the second one?

You can do the second one.

I mean, I'm scared.

(Music plays) We are here to protest what is going on inside, butchering.

They're promoting animal slaughter as environmentally friendly, as humane.

I mean, eating meat it is murder.

It is not compassionate and is not merciful.

We respect all living beings.

Every living being has an inherent right to be allowed to live its own life.

That's why we're here, to spread the word.

The issue of raising animals for slaughter and eventual human consumption is controversial.

I get it.

My mission has always been for people to understand where the food comes from.

Whether it comes from the ground or from an animal I want us to be mindful of what it took to get that food to our plate so that by all means we don't waste any of it.

Today, what we're going to do is we're gonna work with rabbits.

We've got two rabbits that are alive that I will show how to kill.

There will be an opportunity for maybe a couple of people to participate.

But what you'll see is one, an aspect of handling to try and minimize any sort of stress.

They're gonna be stunned to make them insensible to pain.

I'll hang it immediately after stunning it.

I'll cut it's throat.

It will bleed out and soon thereafter it will be unconscious and then dead.

I encourage people to eat less meat.

I try to do that through an increase of reverence for animals and understanding the sacred transition between life and death that occurs at that moment which sustains us.

Vivian, you wanna say anything?

I am with Adam in that we try whenever possible to promote meat as a condiment and less as the center of the plate item and rabbits are a great vehicle for that.

So, umm that's it right now.

So, the method that I use for stunning ends up requiring an impact at the back of the head.

Sort of like a karate chop to the head.

So, you know, it is what it is.

It will calm down when you let it hang.

What we're trying to do is make it die as quickly as possible, you know.

How you guys doing?

Good?

It's pretty easy to get under the pelt of a rabbit.

The first thing that you wanna do is open up both of the legs and the entire thing is gonna be pulled down.

If you need to remove what's in the chest cavity you can go right through.

What you'll run into is the lungs.

You can see the heart.

The heart's delicious.

Obviously it's really small.

So, to add to that folks who are buying rabbits, some of them will be interested in the awful.

Some of them will not.

For my farmer, I ask her to save all her livers and kidneys for me.

So, that's something you can always ask is whether or not that particular chef is interested in those things and if they're not you can stockpile them and someone will be.

So, that's it.

How do you guys feel?

(Music plays) Even though I want us all to understand where our food comes from, parts of the process are uncomfortable for me.

Watching something meet its end makes me cringe.

Push that cart around and everyone grab a rabbit off of it.

Interestingly enough, butchering a rabbit is pretty similar in anatomy to butchering any other quadruped.

Instead of looking at the entire carcass as a whole we break it down into areas called primals.

It's sort of like the meat map of the carcass so to speak.

You have the four legs and the shoulder.

We have the rib primal.

We go back to the loin or the saddle and then in the rear we have the hind legs.

I'm gonna walk through what is essentially an 8 piece method.

Don't try to muscle your way in any joint.

Joints are all about finesse and understanding the spaces that works there.

There's no reason to try and cut through a joint.

You can use the animal too as your guide.

You go right and tight in here.

When I was in culinary school we butchered rabbits because their anatomy is similar to all the other four legged animals we eat so you're not gonna butcher a cow in culinary school or even a pig but a rabbit makes sense.

It's great experience.

So, in the end, essentially it's gonna look like this.

Filleted it off of the ribs.

So right now what you guys have is an 8 piece rabbit.

You can see that pretty much you've got 4 legs, you've got belly, you've got rib, you've got the saddle, and you've got the two back legs.

You know this would have been something traditionally that would have been caught wild.

So, I like to at first start thinking about things in the way that my predecessors would have used them.

One of the traditional uses for rabbits in our culture would have been like a Brunswick Stew for instance and then the other parts of this same animal would have been reserved for something more special like fried rabbit.

It makes it more.

Alright, so I guess that's it.

OS- Thank you.

Thanks guys!

(Applause) (Music plays) I cut into my finger and they made me leave.

I went to the hospital and there was 70 people in the line so I left and we just did it at home.

With no anesthesia?

They gave me a beer and a frozen pizza and just took care of it.

Health care.

Health care.

(Laughter) We've always had a hard time finding qualified, inspired staff so when you find someone who's capable, talented, hard working, and a pleasure to be around you really want them to stay.

That being said, John is leaving and he's all those things I mentioned.

So, umm my wife is finishing school so we're moving back umm, to Durham.

I'll be sad for him to leave.

How much is it gonna suck for you?

I'm gonna like start getting all emotional now just thinking about it.

I don't wanna know.

You're like my big brother so...

Which is funny because... You're younger than me.

I'm younger than you.

(Laughter) It's gonna be horrible leaving.

Ummm, yeah December 5th is gonna be a sad day.

What up?

What is that?

Two different kinds: green and red.

Green curry for the rabbits.

(Music plays) So, tomorrow is Halloween and we are having a party at the Boiler Room.

A costume party and Ben is dressing up like a hot dog and I am dressing up like ketchup.

For me rabbit is an exciting ingredient because it is something that is true to this place.

Families ate rabbit and ate squirrel and ate muskrat.

We didn't but a lot of people did so I feel good about representing it on our menu.

So, Alan broke down all these rabbits yesterday and these are the really meaty thighs and I'm getting ready to brown them and I'm gonna braise them with raw peanuts, chicken stock, leeks, ginger, garlic, and green curry.

So, that's gonna make this stew and it's gonna have sweet potatoes and black rice in it so it's gonna kind of look like Halloween.

That's gonna be served with two little pieces of fried rabbit.

You know, when we brown things generally to braise them I try to get a really hard sear, lots of caramelization.

But with rabbit you don't want to hit it so hard with high heat because there's no skin and there's no fat to really render out so the outside layer can get really tough.

Alright, so now that I've gotten these kind of nicely brown I'm gonna take them out and pour off the fat in the pan.

I've got all this flavor on the bottom of this pan that we call fond.

And I want to make sure that all of that ends up in my stew or in my briase.

So, I'm gonna deglaze.

This is chicken stock.

(Music plays) Rabbit sometimes needs a little help building flavor so I'm gonna reduce my stock a little to sort of intensify.

I'm gonna pour that off.

So, now I'm gonna start building the liquid that we're gonna stew the rabbit in.

It's kind of like a take on a red curry sweet potato stew that I did for my book except we're gonna use green curry and we're gonna use rabbit and we're gonna use peanuts so it's really not like it all.

I finally delivered the manuscript for my cookbook.

It was so big it broke the internet.

I'm just kidding.

But what I'm finding is that now that I'm back at the restaurant I want to call on those recipes to inform my cooking here.

So, I'm gonna start with bacon fat to roast my vegetables in.

So, I've got leeks and ginger and garlic.

The next thing I'm gonna add is this curry paste.

It's just like toasting like cumin seed or coriander.

It will develop more flavor as it hits a dry pan.

Okay, so now I'm gonna add peanuts.

They're gonna take a while to cook so they're gonna braise the whole time.

Then, I'm gonna add my rabbit along with all the liquid.

I'm gonna slowly stew the rabbit and I'm gonna add a few chunks of sweet potato and I'm expecting these to cook and break up.

So, I'm gonna bring this up to a simmer.

I'm gonna check it after an hour.

I want the rabbit kind of really tender because I'm gonna shred it and stir it all in here.

(Laughter) These are cute!

My boots are cute.

That yellow sticks out good.

They, they just... Hey!

Yellow and green match.

You were gonna be red and I'll look like a Christmas tree.

So... (Laughter) Christy does it all.

She raises all kinds of birds for the restaurant.

She raises pigs and she also raises rabbits.

She actually got her start raising rabbits.

We started rabbits in 2005 because a lot of hunters wanted to get 'em to put in their fox pins to train their rabbit dogs with.

My Grandma used to do rabbit or she'd make it like chicken and pastry or chicken and dumplings.

But then again it was rabbits in the wild they were cooking so they were gonna be more tougher.

Right.

They were gonna have more of a gamey flavor to 'em.

Now with the meat rabbits you don't got that gamey taste to it and they're much more tender 'cause you do a fryer at a much younger age.

The rabbits I get from you are not gamey at all.

Right.

So, a lot of times when you cook rabbit you have to add fat to it.

Because it doesn't have any fat.

It's very very low in fat.

So it's one of the healthiest meats on the market to eat.

Alright, let's see some rabbits.

Okay (Music plays) You know, we've done the whole pig thing.

We've done the chicken thing on the show but there's something about this rabbit thing that I'm not sure how people are gonna handle it cause they're so freaking cute.

Because the rabbits are pets.

Right.

There's a couple rabbits in here, Carter has one named Miss Moses.

I mean, so Miss Moses will probably stay around for a very long time I'm sure.

You just have to separate yourself from it but there is some we come across like Miss Moses had babies and one of my workers named him Bruce.

It was a boy.

Well, it got time to process.

He didn't say anything to me the whole time.

Johnny had picked up the rabbit and he went, Miss Christy, that's Bruce.

And I went, well do you do you want Bruce?

He said, well I pat Bruce everyday on the head when we're feeding.

And so I said, well take Bruce home with you!

You were gonna sit here and let me do this to Bruce.

(Laughter) Bruce was saved for the day.

(Laughter) Can I hold one?

Sure.

Just try to hold her front feet because they have sharp toe nails.

She's like, I think you're gonna cook me one day.

(Laughter) She's looking at me like, I don't know if this is a good thing.

That's the thing though...

So cute.

So cute.

You know, everybody is thinking, how can you do that?

He's so cute!

But it's the circle of life.

As I tell everybody it's the circle of life.

But it's white and furry!

I happen to be the one to have to do it so... What made people start eating rabbit was in the Great Depression.

Things got really tight on families like they started raising their own chickens, they had a milk cow, and a lot of people ate rabbits.

So, one rabbit, now you're gonna have to try to follow me on this one.

It's hard to explain.

One rabbit, she's gonna breed 6 times and give me 6 different litters.

Oh wow!

That's why they say blah blah like rabbits.

Yeah.

So, from this rabbit we should have about 6 or 7 litters a year and she will produce you 320 pounds of meat from that one rabbit in one year.

Oh my word!

So, you got a cow here.

He's gonna produce you one baby a year.

It's gonna be born at 75 pounds.

We're gonna let him grow out 2 more months.

We're gonna say 175 pounds.

So, if you got one mama cow and one baby rabbit you got 320 pounds of rabbit meat here.

You got 150 pounds of cow here.

Wow!

It makes you wonder why more people don't raise rabbits.

Right.

Right.

Okay, so like right here.

We bred her on 10/27 to buck 23.

It takes them 28 to 30 days to kindle.

A rabbit kindles.

Her babies are kits.

What we call kits or kittens.

Oh my God.

Okay.

They are induced ovulators, which means when I take her out and I put her with a buck that stimulates her.

She's gonna drop an egg 6 to 8 hours later.

But, now they got to be in a good kind of frame of mind and really want to do it though to get to that point.

I understand.

Yes.

So, we're going to try to breed a rabbit.

This is our doe and we're going to take the doe to the buck.

That's the best place to do it.

So, you're just gonna hold her up like this.

She's real swollen and kind of red.

(Laughter) See that?

Yes, I do!

She's ready.

Okay.

Alright so, here we go.

He gone!

Oh my gosh.

He gone!

(Laughter) That was it.

So, you know he's just romancing her right now.

Nibbling on her ears.

Just saying you know kind of...

Thank you.

Thank you lady.

So when a rabbit kindles and she has newborn babies, this is what it's gonna look like.

Oh my gosh.

Oh my gosh.

This is a newborn.

Oh wow.

So this one is 6 days, well roughly 6 days old.

So, I think that's all I can think to tell you about the rabbits.

Did you ever think that when you started raising those few rabbits for the hunters that you would be doing all this?

I never imagined that it would develop into all of this.

No.

Thank you so much.

Alrighty.

Thank you.

Pot pie is becoming the rabbit tonight.

The charred beans, Justise wants to do this agnolotti.

Would it be a problem with that and cavatelli?

I mean not a problem right now because I can't affect it but I'd rather not.

I'd rather have one pasta.

If any pasta.

Because we have a pizza.

We have a pasta.

We have a pasta in the large plates.

We have a carpaccio.

We have an empanada.

We're about to have a curry.

It's like, what are we?

Okay.

But I like the idea and yeah.

Okay.

We have a very defined concept at Chef & the Farmer.

We make food that reflects the pantry and culinary traditions of Eastern North Carolina and we make it modern.

But so often we want to throw in a taco or a curry or a pasta.

I wanna do that as much as anybody else, but when you have all those things showing up on the menu, then you have no concept.

Alright.

Alright, I'm gonna get started on the stew.

(Music plays) I'm just trying to make it good.

I mean I think it's good but I don't think it's very pretty so I'm trying to figure out what we're going to finish it with.

Make it bright.

Make it look like Halloween.

You would finish something like this with basil a lot of times, cilantro.

It's starting to look better.

It's gonna be good.

Three different types of diners order rabbit in our restaurant.

The good ol' country boy who grew up eating rabbit stewed over rice and gravy.

The person who eats out all the time and orders rabbit everytime they see it on the menu.

And the person who's coming to Chef & the Farmer to have an extraordinary new experience and will order anything I recommend.

So, what are we gonna call it?

So we got rabbit.

I don't wanna say rabbit two ways.

Rabbit stew.

I'm afraid the stew will not sell.

What the hell do we call it?

So, how about green curry rabbit?

Green curry rabbit.

(Music plays) The first thing we're gonna do is drop the rabbit in the fryer.

The rabbit needs 7 minutes.

Seven minutes is a long time.

Yeah.

Is this like chicken and it will float when it's done?

It'll hop.

When the rabbit's done it will hop, Kenny.

That's a lot of food.

Let's see what happens.

Hey guys.

We have a new dish.

I'm like nervous for y'all to have my food because I haven't been here in so long.

So on the bottom you have the rabbit thighs.

So that's the part that the rabbit sits on you know all the time and it's actually the part that gets the most work so it's gonna be the toughest part of the rabbit.

It's braised in green curry, sweet potatoes, and raw peanuts.

Then, on top we have rabbit and roasted peanut gremolata.

Okay, y'all pass that around.

Oh, that's pretty good.

What do y'all think?

You think it's too spicy?

No.

OS- Not at all.

Is it too thick?

No.

I don't know what my problem is.

OS- It's good.

You're like a rookie tonight.

I know.

(Laughter) (Music plays) Tonight we actually have added a wonderful rabbit dish and... Did you try it?

I did.

I tried it earlier today and it's actually... Is it spicy?

It's actually not.

You just get a very subtle hint to it.

Walking in.

Three rabbit.

Heard rabbit!

Leslie, you're doing great.

I don't feel like it.

Kenny, I'm waiting on a rabbit.

OS- Heard!

Walking in pizza followed by a jed split.

Third course rabbit.

We have a really good vibe in the kitchen right now.

Everybody seems to be working really well together and people really respond to John's leadership style.

Rabbit walking in!

Kenny, how long on one rabbit?

Plating now.

Awesome.

I think I'm sorry to be such a pest, but I think you should have a little coming off those ends just for like looks sake too.

I'm sorry.

I know you're like, I hate you Vivian.

No, I love you Chef!

I know you do.

Walking in a skin and a small bread.

And sir for you, that's the green curry rabbit.

OS- Is it good?

Oh yeah!

That's wonderful.

You're not having my rabbit?

No rabbit!

No rabbit!

(Laughter) No rabbit.

You know it's the healthiest meat you can eat?

I know it.

I know it.

It has more protein.

Less fat, less cholesterol.

No rabbit.

Now, I remember going hunting for rabbits when I was a kid in Nebraska.

We never had a rabbit like this.

Everybody loved the rabbit dish and I was surprised.

I'm not sure why.

I don't know if I thought I had lost that special something, but I'm gonna have to get more comfortable working in the kitchen and putting more dishes on the menu because John's leaving.

But I will not be getting more comfortable this weekend because it's Halloween.

Hang on.

Come here.

Alright, Caped Crusader!

There, that holds it up a little better.

My lid is... Like a chef.

Are we going to the Boiler Room party now?

Yep.

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