Rabbit?

Cooking Discussions
1

Say you had a 2.5 lb frozen rabbit (skinned) in your freezer. What would you do with it for maximum deliciousness?

2

I always find rabbit to be a very bland meat, so it’s all going to depend on what goes with it during the cooking.

I’d turn it into a pie, having cooked it with aromatics, leeks and cider. Strip the meat off the bones, mix it with cream, mustard and some of the stock before filling the pie. Recipe would be something like this one (although I’d make a “proper” pie with pastry top, bottom and sides, rather than the “stew with a pastry topping”.

Mum would often make dishes like this when I was a child in the 1950s. I suppose she developed skills with it , during the second world war, as rabbit was, I think, the only meat that wasnt rationed during the war.

2 Likes
3
1 Like
4

Paella. Or, send the bunny to me. :slight_smile:

I was miffed last week because when making paella I had to make do with just chicken thighs and shrimp. The stores around here that usually carry it all quit doing so sometime earlier this year.

2 Likes
5

When I was a boy, my grandmother made Hasenpfeffer.
I assume it was wild rabbit, as her and my grandfather lived on a farm and he was an avid hunter.

1 Like
6
2 Likes
7

At the famous restaurant “Au Pied de Cochon” in Montreal, my wife and I had a whole rabbit for two stuffed with foie gras. It was amazing!

2 Likes
8

Crosses my mind that stuffing the pied with rabbit could be delicious. Something along the lines of Pierre Koffman’s famous dish, for flavourings

1 Like
9

You could recreate this $210 Champaran Rabbit.

(Champaran mutton is a well known Bihari / Indian specialty.)

2 Likes
10

How would you proceed without a clay pot? Could I use a cast iron dutch oven? I have a donabe but it is not big enough for this.

11

Love the name. McGregor as in Peter Cottontail?

12

Slow cooker? I think 4 hours on high or 6 on low would do it.

1 Like
13

Wild or Domestic?

14

Domestic from a farmer at the farmers market. She also had ducks which were great so I do have high hopes

15

Domestic Rabbit is very much like Chicken.
It does not do well with long cooking as it is pretty tender and lean. The Fore Legs would be the only part that can use a long braise.
I typically debone the rear Leg, pound it lightly and cook it like a Schnitzel or Scaloppini. I handle/treat it much like Chicken Breast.
The Saddle / Racks or Loin (depending on how you butcher it) also very delicate and does well with a sear and short Pan Roasting.
I would think that Sous-vide would also be an excellent way to prepare it with out chancing drying it out.

1 Like
16

I would use my pressure cooker without the weight (but with the ring / gasket – so it’s tightly sealed). Dutch oven should work well; you could seal the top with foil to lock in the moisture.

17

No. McGregor as in Peter Rabbit, by Beatrix Potter.

There’s an interesting Google that I’ve just done. Apparently Potter’s publisher didnt copyright the book in America which allowed Thornton Burgess to base his Peter Cottontail book on the original without legal redress. Wicked stuff, eh?

By the by, I used to volunteer at our local hospital. The supervisor of the security team used to go shooting for rabbits on a local farm. In the UK, they are regarded as a pest so there’s no season for them. Occasionally, he used to bring me in a couple - thankfully skinned. They always needed careful cooking as , with wild rabbits, you no idea how old/tough they are. Nowadays, I have to buy locally shot bunny at the farmers market.

Adding to my mention of Mum cooking rabbit pie and the probable WW2 connection, the song “Run, rabbit, run”, by Flanagan & Allen was a very popular at the time.

1 Like
18

My favorite rabbit recipe

2 Likes
19

I (belatedly) discovered ‘The Great British Menu’ on tubi here in the states, and in the first available season, the banquet was for the WWII vets on the anniversary of D-Day.

I knew about rationing, of course, but I had no idea how rabbits were regarded there at the time (and still, it seems), and how many people relied on them as one of the few available, unrationed sources of meat during the war. It’s not really on the mainstream radar here in the states. I’ve only ever encountered it at decided upscale places. I really should try it some day.

20

Cottontail was of course one of Peter’s sisters. Along with Flopsie and Mopsie.

2 Likes