To Skin A Rabbit or Hare

If you have never skinned a rabbit or hare the sight of one of these otherwise welcome gifts on the kitchen table, with fur intact, is rather upsetting. It must be skinned before it can be cooked, and this is really (once you’ve done it four or five times) quite easy and not too awful. If you can’t face it you will have to take the whole thing to a butcher, but think of the time saved if you can do it yourself. A hare should be well hung (head down) but a rabbit should be gutted as soon as possible. Lay the animal on several layers of newspaper. Take a sharp pointed knife, find the lower tip of the breast bone and slit the skin right through. Make an incision from the tip of the breastbone to the base of the tail. This can be done without looking the first time, if your sense of direction is accurate. Do be sure you have gone through the skin, or you will have to do it again to extract the innards. Having made this incision pick up the animal, front legs in one hand, back legs in the other, belly to the newspaper, and shake; the intestines will drop on to the paper. Boldly pull any that remain, until you find you are dealing with relatively familiar pieces like liver and kidneys; take these out and put them aside. Throw the intestines away. Then get on with the skinning. Starting with the original incision, peel the skin away towards the spine on each side. Flip the back legs inside out, as if you were taking off very difficult stockings. Sever the legs at the heel joint (the bend above the foot) and cut off the tail. The back and the middle of the animal should now be skinned.