"Don't be afraid," Petna said. Curt said, "It's a rabbit. But both of them were so distressed by the constant noise outside the wall that they could no longer close their eyes. The next morning, Aureliano II opened the door and saw that the whole courtyard was crowded with rabbits—rabbit hairs that looked blue in the rising sun. Petna Curt laughed like a madman and couldn't help but joke with him.
"These were all born last night," she said.
- "One Hundred Years of Solitude"
Rabbits, which have a very low sense of existence in nature, are naturally weak little animals. It is sensitive, slender, swift, timid, and any carnivore is a terrifying predator. But thanks to its strong fecundity, until now, it can still lurk among the tall grasses and lurk deep in caves. Raise your ears and listen vigilantly to everything that is happening around you, and the slightest movement of the wind will make it run wildly and panic. The world is dangerous everywhere for it.
In 2005, scientists discovered a very complete fossil specimen on the Gobi Desert in southern Mongolia that was kept 55 million years ago. Scientists have found that the small animal has a long tail, twice as long as its hind legs, and teeth that have evolved to resemble rabbits and squirrels. They named it "Spike Tooth" and believed it was the direct ancestor of today's rabbits. That is to say, when the australopithecus had just come down from the tree, the ancestor of the rabbit had already been running and jumping on the vast land for an unknown number of years.
Stigmatodontic fossils
It is better to live early than to live, and the history of rabbits being eaten by humans is at least millions of years. Fossils of human-eaten remains have been unearthed in Egypt, Iran, and Spain. In the eyes of primitive people, compared to hunting one-horned rhinoceros, swollen deer have to take risks; digging a rabbit nest is much easier. By hunting rabbits, you can not only get high-quality protein that is very thin but tender, but also obtain a large amount of fur used to protect against cold. In the later period, modern Homo sapiens rushed out of Africa, with more intelligent brains, more dexterous hands and feet, and more elaborate tools that greatly increased the efficiency of hunting rabbits. In a cave dating back to 15,000 years in Afghanistan, a large number of rabbit bones have been unearthed, many of which have been worn as ornaments by drill holes, and the rock walls have left scenes of ancient humans hunting rabbits.
<h1>The domestication of rabbits is a dual-source theory</h1>
Although rabbits have been hunted by humans for a long time, their domestication and breeding history is very short. By comparing the DNA of existing rabbits, scientists found that domestic rabbits have two ancestors: western rabbits, rock rabbits dating back to Spain 4500 years ago, which is also the ancestor of the hares that now ravage Europe and Australia. In the east, the earliest hare rabbits in the North China Plain date back 4,000 years. This branch spread relatively small, only spreading to the whole of China, Central Asia, Northeast Asia and Japan. The two domestication origins do not interfere with each other, parallel and do not contradict each other, which is the dual source theory of rabbit domestication.
As can be seen in the picture above, the origin of the Western domestic rabbit is in Spain on the Iberian Peninsula. The local rock rabbit's unique brain structure makes its perception of fear less sensitive than its eastern cousins. Humans then began to consciously domesticate them for meat and fur, and it was not until about eight centuries BC that the Western domestic rabbit was truly domesticated. With the development of Western maritime civilization, rabbits, as a standing meat-eating resource, began to spread everywhere. In particular, the advent of the Age of Discovery has enabled the rabbits that had been domesticated to reach strange continents with the ship, released into the wild after several generations of breeding, and then re-emerged as hares. Coupled with the absence of natural enemies, the number exploded geometrically. For example, in Australia now, there are nearly 10 billion hares living in a good way, and the local government has no effective countermeasures and is basically helpless; at the same time, Chinese foodies can only sigh and salivate, and have asked the Australian government to issue rabbit tourist visas.
In the East, the history of domestication and consumption of domestic rabbits in our country is slightly later than in the West. The small number of rabbit bones unearthed at the Banpo site also indicates that rabbits were not an important source of meat at the time. It wasn't until 2011 that a tribal settlement site dating back about 3,000 years was discovered in Anyang, Henan. Among them is a rabbit pen of sixty square meters enclosed by a complete rock. Through the study of a large number of rabbit skeleton fossils unearthed, it was found that its body size is significantly smaller than that of hares of the same age, and its hind legs are shorter than those of hares, and it is not good at running and jumping, which can already be regarded as a domestic rabbit in the strict sense. However, due to the relatively large population density of East Asia since ancient times, the degree of mobility as a continental civilization is significantly lower than that of the West. The rabbit was only bred in China and was not brought back to China until the mid-7th century through Japanese envoys.
In modern times, Western rabbit breeding is mainly for meat and pleasure, and basically all pet rabbits are Western rabbits. But its biggest drawback is that the fur is of poor quality, toughness and warmth that is not even a third of that of sheepskin. In the East, Chinese rabbits are mainly for meat and fur. We not only eat its flesh, but also take its fur as a raw material for the filling of the large trunk and the brush (the rabbit pen has appeared in the Warring States). There are basically no pet rabbits in the East, and people pay more attention to its better practical value.
<h1>The culinary history of Western rabbit meat. </h1>
Although the West is slightly better than the East in the time of initial domestication of rabbits, for a long time, rabbit meat was not an important ingredient for cooking. More often, the docile domestic rabbits were mainly used as pet babies for noble ladies to relieve their worries. Naturally, the animal husbandry that has developed in Europe since ancient times will not look up to the poor meat of the rabbit. In The era of obscurantism in Europe, in the basic recipes left in the Middle Ages, there are only a few words about roast rabbit meat, asparagus stew rabbit meat and other cooking methods. And because of the extremely poor health situation at that time, the large number of viruses carried by rabbits became synonymous with plague. In Europe, where the Black Death was raging, rabbits were hunted in large numbers, and even jerboas that looked more like rabbits were harmed. In this case, large-scale breeding of rabbits is naturally impossible to talk about.
During this period, the more famous rabbit meat dish was also appeared at the celebration banquet of Edward I of England after the conquest of Scotland. In order to humiliate the Grand Duke of England, Edward tore off the roast rabbit leg and handed it over, not without sarcasm: Please eat this rabbit leg, so that you can escape quickly the next time, and you will not be caught so easily by the lion (the coat of arms of the English royal family).
By the time the large-scale consumption of rabbit meat began, it was already after World War I. The devastation of the outbreak of war on people's livelihood made the meat intake of residents at that time basically zero. Germany and France found that rabbits reproduce quickly and the ratio of meat to feed is very high, so they began to raise meat rabbits on a large scale as an alternative to beef and mutton. By the end of World War II, the economy of Europe was on the verge of collapse, and it could only eat people except rats. In this situation, countries imported a large number of rabbit meat products from Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and Argentina to resolve the hunger crisis in the two countries.
The most famous salted plum stewed rabbit meat in French cuisine
At this point, the rabbit industry in Europe has completely begun to rise, of which the French and Belgians breed the most and love to eat. In the recipes of French cuisine, you can see many dishes with meat rabbits as the main ingredient. For example, the famous "pork chickpea stewed rabbit meat", this dish once appeared in "The Count of Monte Cristo". Another example is Charles de Gaulle's favorite "rabbit meat stewed in white sauce" and "salted plum stewed rabbit meat". Among them, "salted plum stewed rabbit meat" is the most famous. A French recipe published in 1986 contains its very detailed approach:
Select a whole piece of rabbit leg meat, remove the leg bones and wash it with wine, add rosemary, bay leaves, thyme, chopped parsley, red wine, red peppercorns, onion slices, carrot slices, salt, vegetable oil and marinate together for 48 hours.
Ten dried salted plums soaked in warm water are soft. Add red wine and burn through.
Add a lot of butter to the pan, sauté the fatty slices, sauté the onion slices until fragrant, and then fry the rabbit meat that is picked clean of spices on both sides of the pan. Pour in small mushrooms, dried plums, red wine, salt, pepper and simmer for an hour and a half.
Very traditional, very standard French food practice, I think the taste should not be bad.
Rabbit burgers are more common in southern Germany
In Belgium and Germany, rabbit meat is mostly ground and then made into meatloaf to serve as a sandwich for hamburgers or hot dogs. Because rabbit meat is inherently lean and has some mucus, many methods are cooked with diced pork and diced beef. The thick grease and aroma of pork beef are used to enhance the texture of rabbit meat, and the mucus of rabbit meat in turn makes the stewed soup more viscous, the pancakes more compact, and the filled sausages are translucent, which is very beautiful. Germany's famous curry rabbit burger paired with Bavarian stouts has long been one of the most delicious snacks in southern Germany and is the perfect meal for low-calorie enthusiasts.
You might not think of it. In Birmingham, England, rabbit meat is only slightly cheaper than veal. In France, rabbit meat is basically three times the price of chicken. It is very ironic that while the supply of rabbit meat in Europe is in short supply and the price is high, the hare in the Americas and Australia is still rampant. What is even more ridiculous is that the vast majority of rabbit meat in Europe now needs to be imported, and the country with the largest export share is China. Accounting for 70% of the world's total exports, it is a well-deserved world first. What The Europeans are thinking, perhaps only they themselves will know.
<h1>The history of rabbit cooking in China. </h1>
Compared with the lackluster rabbit meat cooking in the West, the rabbit meat cooking in China is much richer. The earliest text for preying on hares is in the poem "Xiao Ya Qiaoyan": "Jumping on the rabbit, encountering a dog and getting it". In the "Zhou Nan Rabbit Place", there is a record of "Su Su Rabbit Place". The kings of the Western Zhou Dynasty began to eat "rabbit sauce", that is, rabbit meat minced and then added seasonings to ferment and mature meat sauce. In the Western Han Dynasty's "Zhou Li Tianguan Tsukasa Zai", the record of rabbit is more detailed.
Add beans to the real, celery, rabbit...
The beans are tall-footed discs, the celery is cress, and the pineapples are pickled. This dish is clearly a cold dish, with pickled sour celery to accompany the fermented and mature rabbit sauce. Meat and vegetarian are suitable, and acid and salt are combined. Who can say that Chinese food does not pay attention to collocation and presentation? Also in the Han Dynasty, in the "Interpretation of Names" there are:
Chicken fiber, finely rub its wax fiber, and then stained with sophomore. The same goes for rabbit fibers.
This may have been the earliest rabbit meat loose.
In the Tang Dynasty, there was a honey roast rabbit
In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, rabbit meat was called "Baiwei meat" by Ge Hong. Because he found that the rabbit meat itself has no taste, with beef and sheep is the taste of beef, with the pig chicken is the taste of pig chicken, especially good at integration. According to this characteristic of rabbit meat, Ge Hong also used it to refine Dan. And praised it as "fresh and fine, not under the pheasant." "The emperors of the Tang Dynasty all had the blood of the humble nomads, and Li Shimin liked to set up a tent in the imperial garden and cook wild roasts. It is also mentioned that "(rabbits) seal their noses with wax pills, and remove their fur and apply honey to burn them." This is very similar to the current honey roast rabbit.
There is a story in the miscellaneous book "Yunxian Miscellaneous Records" from the five generations, which is enough to resonate with the people of Sichuan more than a thousand years later:
There are servants, very poor. When encountering a person and a red pipe pen of tiger hair, it is said: "What is needed is the pen, but if you let one person know it, it is gone." "One night, Si Rabbit Head Soup, even hehe got several plates, the husband and wife could not finish, in order to with the neighbor. Although the pen exists, it has no response.
Rabbit head as a soup, this practice is very special. Today's rabbit head mostly exists in the form of spicy brine. Ji Masheng only needs to "hehe pen" to make his dream come true. And now the rabbit head in Chengdu has risen to ten pieces. Foodies nibble on the big nibbles, and at the same time cry and shout that they can't afford to spend... The happiness of the ancients can be seen.
Shabu lamb is not the only one, have you ever heard of shabu rabbit meat?
In the middle and late period of the Northern Song Dynasty, the "Tokyo Dream Record" recorded several rabbit meat snacks in the life of the city at that time: "pan rabbit, fried rabbit, onion splash rabbit", look at the name can roughly know its practice. In the same period of "Mountain Family Qing Offering", there is a new and strange way to eat rabbit meat:
Xiang You Wuyi Liuqu, visiting the Stop Division. In case of snow, get a rabbit, no one can make it. Shi Yun: Only thin batches are used in the mountains, and wine, sauce and pepper are fertile. Take the wind stove to sit on the seat, use less than half a cup of water, wait for the soup to ring a cup, each is divided into spoons, so that the self-into the soup is cooked, and the soup is served with juice at will.
The rabbit meat is sliced into thin slices, marinated in wine, soy sauce, and peppercorns, and then beaten directly on the side stove. It is similar to the shabu lamb in Beijing.
It is very strange that in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the practice of rabbit meat suddenly became scarce. Looking at the two dynasties, the only things that can be counted are "fragrant rabbit meat" and "sauce rotten rabbit meat" in Zhang Lanzhi's "No Two Miscellaneous Collections"; "white bad stewed rabbit", "spicy rabbit silk", "rabbit breast" and "fried rabbit silk" in the "Tune Ding Collection" are four very ordinary dishes. What is even more strange is that the "Suiyuan Food Menu", which is a collection of ancient and modern cooking, does not mention a rabbit meat dish. The reason why the author originally thought about it was also that the meat of the upper class at this time was already extremely rich, and the oligo meat with no fat layer of rabbit meat was no longer in its sight; the poor at the bottom may eat more, but no one wrote a record for it, so it was slowly forgotten.
It wasn't until later that I found that the author thought it was too simple, and the Tao could not be judged simply from the taste. It turns out that many books in the Ming and Qing dynasties recorded: "Rabbits are inedible, the strong eat weak, and pregnant women lack lips." This pseudoscience handed down from Tao Hongjing made the Ming and Qing people convinced: eating rabbit meat will make the body weaker and weaker, and pregnant women will change rabbit lips when they eat raw children. Who has the guts to try it?
The rapid development of our country's rabbit breeding industry was after the 1970s. During the three years of natural disasters, a brigade in Nanyang, Henan Province, survived the difficulties by breeding rabbits, and none of them starved to death. The local government found that rabbits matured early and bred quickly. A pair of rabbits can give birth to hundreds of rabbits a year, and the next year the newborn rabbits can have offspring. Therefore, it is reported to the leadership and intends to be promoted to the whole country. In those years, the country vigorously developed the rabbit economy. Gradually, rabbit meat became a meat variety exported by China, accounting for more than 70% of the world's rabbit meat supply.
Grilled rabbit meat in the horse camp
And the domestic cooking methods have also slowly increased, which is represented by the "Jiamaying Roast Rabbit Meat" in Luoyang Dongguan. Local fresh rabbit meat as raw material, slaughtered peeled and removed from the internal organs, after processing clean, first with large salt, white wine, nitrate, peppercorns, star anise, cinnamon, fragrant leaves, cumin, sand kernels, grass koss, cardamom, grass fruits, cloves and other marinade layers into the jar for a day, take out and put into the brine to marinade. Local chefs creatively marinate chicken and rabbit together, using the fat and umami of chicken to make up for the lack of rabbit meat. Rabbit meat has a chicken flavor when eaten; the fat of chicken is absorbed by the rabbit meat, becoming more tough and dry. Therefore, in Luoyang, this flavor snack is collectively known as "Jiamaying Roast Chicken and Rabbit Meat" and will be sold together.
Rabbit meat is not only valuable for consumption, but also an auxiliary herb for the treatment of diabetes. As early as the Tang Dynasty's "Sea Collection", there is: "Use a rabbit, peel, claw, and five organs, fry it with a bucket and a half of water, go to the cold, thirst and drink it, and the extremely heavy one is only two rabbits." "Two rabbit stew soup cures diabetes, the author does not believe." But rabbit meat is very high in protein, while fat is negligible. And contains arginine, tryptophan and lysine, which are in short supply in the human body, and indeed have certain nourishing value. The efficiency of digestion and absorption of rabbit meat is also the highest among meats, and the cholesterol is extremely low, which is naturally especially suitable for the three high people and the elderly and children. Its value is more than that, its lecithin content is very high, can be a good inhibition of blood clot formation, and can prevent the production of skin keratin, so that the skin is smooth and delicate. In this way, rabbit meat, as a kind of "national meat", is really deserved.
<h1>Write at the end. </h1>
The whole article is talking about eating, and finally a few small talk about pet rabbits. Women are born with no resistance to big-eyed, round, well-behaved, soft-skinned critters. So in the history of pets, rabbits are definitely a topic that cannot be bypassed. Unfortunately, the rabbit's situation is very delicate, it is both a genuine pet, and it is not like a cat and dog that can make some people grit their teeth at the mention of eating, such as mourning. Rabbits still exist more as a kind of dual-purpose animals, and the history of eating is far longer than the history of pampering. So, if your female friend asks you with tears in her eyes: "Why do you want to eat rabbits", you can answer her with a straight face:
"Without him, only good food ears, want to taste a mouthful?"