Rabbit - freeze instead of hanging?

pickarooney

Not sure if this is more a food or science question... I bought some rabbit meat to cook and the butcher told me that I should freeze it for at least 24 hours prior to cooking. He said it had only been killed on Tuesday and so hadn't been hanging long enough and that freezing it would have the same effect.
I can't understand exactly how. Can anyone offer a culinary, scientific or humorous explanation?

Doper Than U

Hmmm.. I've heard this before. Most meat isn't hung for long anymore, it just goes straight into the freezer and then onto supermarket shelves. I don't have the reason why though... you might find it here www.rivercottage.net (in the forums under processing or wild foods maybe).

pickarooney

Cheers. I found a couple of mentions of the procedure but no real explanation as to what happens during freezing. I did find some nice recipes though

Gordon

It's probably more humane..

Rew

Freezing would break alot of the internal cell structure in the meat as the ice crystals form. May have somting to do with it.

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

aren't you meant to boil bunnies? that's what a lot of my ex-girlfriends used to do...

stevenmu

Something to do with letting most of the blood drain out ? As Rew mentioned freezing would destroy a lot of the cells possibly removing the need to remove as much blood. Just a wild guess though.

pickarooney

Maybe, but I can't see the correlation myself. As far as I know, hanging is to distribute the blood evenly around the body (although wouldn't it all collect in the head/feet depending on how it was hung?) rather than to let it drain out - hallal-style butchery would achieve that quicker and more effectively. Maybe breaking up the cells makes it easier for the other ingredients to penetrate the meat and cook faster/more evenly, though this is only the case with normal freezers and not blast-freezers which are supposed to preserve the integrity of the food's structure. I suppose he assumed I wouldn't have a blast freezer at home though

Alanna

AFAIK the hanging process is to allow the meat to slightly putrify, which allows the cells structure to break down a little which, in turn, results in a more tender meat. I'd imagine that freezing the meat would break down the cell structure a little and so tenderise it a little.