How to remove silver skin ?!

[Ramjet]

I need a crash course on removing the silver skin from a carcass .... quickly / easily.


I tried one today and struggled with the task. It was about an 8 month old rabbit ... maybe a little oder than ideal.

 

[Zass]

http://honest-food.net/2010/05/19/how-t ... -a-rabbit/

This guy has the bun broken up into serving pieces, but I think it's easy to see at least

 

[Ramjet]

Thanks , that was helpful ...

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Perhaps I'm an uncouth barbarian :viking: who will eat anything, but... why bother? opcorn:

We just skin it and I have never noticed a strange texture from the silver skin. :?

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

Umm, whats silver skin? :hiding:

 

[Ramjet]

Perhaps I'm an uncouth barbarian :viking: who will eat anything, but... why bother? opcorn:

We just skin it and I have never noticed a strange texture from the silver skin. :?

Nothing barbaric about it ... its much easier to just leave it and no change in taste.


The reason to remove it is that the fibers of the meat and silverskin have a different moisture content and the silverskin will contract around the meat fibers forcing them out the ends of the silverskin .... and you end up with multiple textures in the same piece of meat , one part compressed , another not.

Think of the silverskin as a sausage casing ....

Ate my first rabbit today and could definitely tell the difference in texture from those pieces where I removed most or all and those that I didn't do so well.
Have to say I was very surprised at how tender it was (8 or 9 month old rabbit) tho I allowed it to rest in a brine bath for ~48 hours & the flavor was very good. I can see rabbit being on the menu regularly , despite my wife's protests.

 

[Zass]

silver skin is easy to remove with a sharp knife (I use a scalpel) usually just take it off the backstraps though.

 

[PSFAngoras]

I've been helping butcher animals or doing it myself for the last eight years, and I've never heard the term silver skin until this post. We've always just called it grissle, and it's left right where it is. Never bothered with it, and the only time I've noticed it make any difference in anything is when we turn the meat into jerky, and then it's nearly impossible to chew and you just eat around it.

Maybe I'm just an uncivilized mountain girl though!

 

[GBov]

I just leave it too, it cooks just fine.

Extra work I can well do without! :lol:

 

[Zass]

If you slide a knife under the silverskin on the backstrap, you can totally slice it all the way down and then peel it away with your fingers. Comes right off either side in one big sheet.

 

[Haha...Uhoh]

Never heard it called "silver skin" always called it membrane but removing it makes it easier for the kids to want to eat but leaving it seems to hold in the moisture better. There is a difference in texture, I'm a redneck who's raised meat rabbits and hunts wild rabbits.

 

[dlynn]

I've been helping butcher animals or doing it myself for the last eight years, and I've never heard the term silver skin until this post. We've always just called it grissle, and it's left right where it is. Never bothered with it, and the only time I've noticed it make any difference in anything is when we turn the meat into jerky, and then it's nearly impossible to chew and you just eat around it.

Maybe I'm just an uncivilized mountain girl though!

The jerky recipes I've seen use belly. I've not tried yet. I grind them for sausage. But I have found when removing diaphragm if I pull up towards belly most of that membrane peels off.

 

[TKT]

Gristle is usually referring to cartilage, like what you find inside and around joints, like in legs or thighs.

 

[Shaycer]

On rabbits I don't wait my time removing it.. But pig and goat I remove with a skinning knife.. Slip under and and it slides between meat to come off easy