Meat

A broiler — the bird many people call a brailer — is a chicken raised for the table. The meat is mild, widely used, and familiar in a roast, a curry, or a grill. Skin and a little fat help it stay moist.

Rabbit is the other meat. A young farm rabbit is pale, fine, and mild, with very little fat. It is closer to chicken than to wild game, but it is leaner than chicken and dries out if it is cooked hard and fast. Legs, loin, and saddle are the cuts people ask for. The whole rabbit suits a stew.

Lohmann Brown hens and the other layers are there for eggs. They live longer, stay lighter, and spend their feed on laying. Cooking one later is possible, but it is a different dish from a young broiler: firmer, and happier in a slow pot.

Live rabbits are not automatically meat either. A breeding pair is stock for your own warren. A grow-out is a young rabbit headed toward meat weight. Say which you want.

For chicken, ask for broiler meat, whole or in pieces. For rabbit, ask for a whole rabbit or for hind legs, loin, or saddle. Tell us the day you can pick it up so we set aside what is ready.

If you are deciding between them: choose broiler when you want classic chicken. Choose rabbit when you want a leaner meat and do not mind a gentler recipe. The rabbit meat page goes further into the cuts and the cooking.