Rabbit with Herbs

Rabbit Features

The rabbit is characterized for having a covered body of a thick and woolly hair, of dun pale color to grey, oval head and big eyes. It weighs between 1,5 and 2,5 kg in wild state. It has long ears of up to 7 cm. And a very short tail. Its previous legs are shorter than the posterior ones. It measures from 33 to 50 cm in affable conditions, even more in domestic races for meat. All these characteristics that it possesses this one spices in wild state they can change significantly according to the race.

Rabbit Nutritional Properties

There are great the advantages that there contributes the consumption of meat of rabbit. It is a question of a lean pork and brandish (low proportion of collagen), for what it turns out to be easy to chew. The meat of domestic rabbit is totally a white meat, since they have consumed natural food and have grown up of hygienic form in specializing farms. This way there comes to the consumer a tasty, low meat in calories and with minor quantity of cholesterol. Compared with that of other animal species, the meat of rabbit is richer in proteins: 21 grams per every 100 grams of meat opposite to 20 grams of the veal or the 16 of the lamb. In addition, it contains less fat, only 6 % approximately, which turns her into the leanest meat of the market (meat of birds apart). The loin and the leg are the most important parts. The loin is the leanest part of the canal with values of content of fat of 1,2 %, value lower than that of lean meats as the breast of chicken, whereas the meat of the leg presents a content of slightly top fat, of about 3 %, though it continues being a lean pork. With regard to the minerals it stands out on the rest of meats for its high content in potassium. Also its content stands out in phosphorus and in calcium. The contribution of sodium of the meat of rabbit is moderate. As for its content in vitamins stand out the vitamins of the group B, especially the B3 and the B12. The meat of rabbit is the principal source of vitamin B3 among the pertaining to meat products, and of vitamin B12 after the meat of wild boar. The meat of rabbit does not have uric acid either and its content in purines is very small, what they do that could be included in the diets directed to anticipating and treating the hiperuricemia and the gout disease.

Curiosities

To discover the origin of the name of the species in Spanish as well as of its common name it is necessary to mend until some centuries B.C.. The rabbit was an animal not known for the Greeks and Latin people of the Antiquity who visited the Iberian Peninsula. The Greek historian Polibio (2nd century B.C.) describes it for the first time: " If you are looking at it closely it is alike a small hare, but when you are taking in the hands one sees that it is of very different form, and it tastes also in a different way on having eaten it; most of the time lives under land ". It was abundant in the Paleolithic, judging by the remains discovered in the Iberian Peninsula. At present, its area of distribution includes the north of Africa and the whole Europe up to Russia, being introduced in many places of the continent by hunting motives. Along the History also it has been taken to The United States, Chile, South Africa and Australia, where the wild rabbits have turned into the principal plague of the country due to the absence of predators and natural competitors. This animal began to become domesticated during the Middle Ages and to growing up in cages.