Rabbit Recipe?

[arrabil]

I was saying to the neighbor that if one of his rabbits goes missing that was me. Half an hour later his son brought down a gutted and skinned rabbit. I was bringing him gutted and skinned catfish last year but he is still a seriously nice guy.

Anyone have a recipe for it that doesn't involve frying? This thing is like two feet long and eight inches wide. I have nothing to fry it in. Neighbor said its a "white meat rabbit" unlike the kind we sometimes hunt on the property which are are "dark meat rabbits." I had no idea they were different.

I'm not much of a cook so some details will be necessary (wife said this is my rabbit and my problem).

Thanks.

 

[beenthere]

I'd bet your neighbor would be glad to suggest a good way to cook the rabbit.

Not frying just because the fry pan isn't big enough? If so, cut it up into pieces that will fit the fry pan.

 

[arrabil]

Neighbor fries them whole. I want to cook it whole in the oven. Broil it or something.

 

[/pine]

cut it up as you would a chicken...
powder with seasoned flour and fry in a minimum of oil (I like olive oil) in an iron skillet until the done...the outside should by slightly crispy...

Rabbit bones are much smaller than chicken bones so there is more meat on them and in the respect meat heats faster than bone so rabbit cooks faster than chicken...

 

[Bird]

Just offhand, I can't think of any recipe for chicken in which rabbit could not be substituted. We nearly always cut them up to cook them, however, we had a neighbor who had a couple of big smokers and had a big Fourth of July party each year, always plenty of beef brisket, chicken, and sausage. One year we included one whole goat and 8 whole rabbits.

If you know how to cook a whole chicken in the oven, do the same thing with that rabbit and I'll bet you like it.

 

[dave1949]

Domestic (white meat) rabbit can be pretty lean with no wild game taste to it and due to that, the meat can be very bland by itself. I think that's why if you google rabbit recipes, most of them do something with spices to add a good amount of flavoring.

Dave.

 

[gsganzer]

How about rabbit stew?

Rabbit stew with dumplings

5 cups water
2 rabbits, cut into six pieces
2 cups celery pieces, 1" pieces
!/4 cup chicken base
4 cups cubed potatoes, 1" cubes
2 cups cubed onions, 1" cubes
2 cups sliced carrots, 1/4" slices
1 tsp. dry thyme
2 cups frozen peas, thawed
2 cups halved mushrooms
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
Baking powder dumplings

(Serves Eight)

In a dutch oven, place water, rabbits, celery and chicken base. Cover and cook over medium heat for 1 hour. Skim off fat. If you wish, you can remove the meat from the bones. Add potatoes, onions, carrots and thyme. Cover and cook 45 minutes.

In a bowl, place peas, mushrooms, flour and black pepper. Toss to combine, leaving no flour lumps. Add to stew and gently mix. Cook for 20 minutes.

Make dumplings. Place in stew. Cover and cook 10 minutes or until dumplings are tender.

(you can use chicken stock in place of the water and chicken base)


Baking powder dumplings
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup milk
2 T. oil or melted butter
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 T. Cream of wheat or farina
2 tsp. baking powder

Beat eggs to a froth. Add milk, oil and salt. Combine flour, cream of wheat and baking powder. Add to liquid. Gently mix to combine. Do not overmix.

With desired spoon size, dip spoon into boiling liquid (soup, water, etc.) Dip spoon into batter and dip into boiling liquid. Continue intil batter is gone. Cover and simmer 12- 15 minutes.

For variety add 2 teaspoons of one of the following: fresh dill, fresh herbs, parmesan cheese, diced shallots (cooked and cooled), or 3 tablespoons shredded cheese.

 

[Mike120]

Hasenpfeffer (Rabbit Stew) --



.INGREDIENTS
3 pounds rabbit meat, cleaned and cut into pieces
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 pound bacon, diced
1/2 cup finely chopped shallots
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 cup dry red wine
1 cup water
1 tablespoon chicken bouillon granules
1 tablespoon currant jelly
10 black peppercorns, crushed
1 bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
2 teaspoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour


..DIRECTIONS
1.Place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain on paper towels and set aside. Sprinkle rabbit with salt and coat with 1/3 cup flour, shaking off excess. Brown rabbit in remaining bacon fat. Remove from skillet, along with all but 2 tablespoons of the fat, and reserve.

2.Saute shallots and garlic in skillet for about 4 minutes, until tender. Stir in wine, 1 cup water and bouillon. Heat to boiling, then stir in jelly, peppercorns, bay leaf, rosemary and thyme. Return rabbit and bacon to skillet. Heat to boiling, then reduce heat to low. Cover and let simmer about 1 1/2 hours or until rabbit is tender.

3.Remove bay leaf and discard. Place rabbit on a warm platter and keep warm while preparing gravy.

4.To Make Gravy: Stir lemon juice into skillet with cooking liquid. Combine 3 tablespoons water with 2 tablespoons flour and mix together; stir mixture into skillet over low heat. Finally, stir in thyme. Pour gravy over stew and serve, or pour into a gravy boat and serve on the side.

 

[Cami]

When I saw the thread title there was a half second where I thought somebody wanted to try their hand at babbit bearings, but made a spelling mistake....Yeah, I know, it's the rural living section...

Does Welsh rabbit count?

I've never heard of white/dark thumpers. All I've ever known was pet the bunny, eat the bunny.

As a boy I really liked shake-n-bake rabbit, and rabbit pie

My wife doesn't like game meat of any sort and wouldn't like me bringing one home from the store, let alone one I caught myself. A couple times I've threatened to set snares just to wind her up.

Just remember, if you try the shake-n-bake, that the darn meat is so lean that it's not very forgiving if you over cook it.

 

[Bird]

I never heard of them referred to as white and dark meat rabbits, but I can understand why. I grew up eating every cottontail, jack rabbit, and swamp rabbit we could find, but never had any domestic rabbit. Then in 1972, while living in Des Plaines, Il, I was surprised one day to find a 3 lb. frozen rabbit, imported from Poland, in the super market, and of course, I bought it. My wife fried it, I took one bite, and we threw it in the garbage. I think it must have thawed and spoiled on the trip over, but it was definitely inedible.

But then in November, 1995, I bought a buck and 3 does and started raising New Zealand White rabbits. It wasn't long until I had 15 cages, and I raised over 300 rabbits before I quit raising them in July, 1998.. The meat was a bit lighter in color than the wild rabbits I grew up eating, but it was delicious, fried, barbecued, rabbit stew, with dumplings, or ground up to make rabbit salad for sandwiches.

Some day I think I'd like to try Hasenpfeffer, but my brother once told me the only inedible rabbit he ever tasted was Hasenpfeffer. There are dozens of recipes, some of which use the rabbit's blood as a thickener for the gravy, and I can do without that. I sold some rabbits that I had slaughtered and dressed to a German lady, but then later she wanted me to catch the blood for her when I dressed the rabbits and I declined. I told her if she wanted the blood caught, she'd have to do it herself, so she bought live rabbits for that purpose.

 

[arrabil]

I think I can make the stew with dumpling recipe above.

I guess no one cooks these things whole (stuffed like a turkey is what I was envisioning) unless they're fried.

Bird, like you, we ate every rabbit we ever got when I was a kid and I've never seen one like the one my neighbor gave me. Granted, I've never seen a rabbit this size before either! We also never ate them fried but those recipes were spur of the moment type things only your grandmother is capable of.

 

[Bird]

I've never seen a rabbit this size before

It would be interesting to know what breed of rabbit you got from your neighbor. Of course, the New Zealand Whites that I raised were bigger that most of the wild rabbits we ate, but things like the Flemish Giants are really big rabbits.

I've never understood why a lot of people would eat cottontail rabbits, but wouldn't think of eating a jack rabbit. We ate every jack rabbit we could get when I was a kid; the young ones were good fried and the bigger, older ones were cooked in the pressure cooker, the meat was removed from the bones, and used in stews, soups, and dumplings, or ground up and put in gravy or used to make rabbit salad (just like chicken salad).

And I really wish that our local grocery stores had rabbits.

 

[gsganzer]

Granted, I've never seen a rabbit this size before either!

Are you sure your neighbor isn't messing with you and gave you a possum or racoon instead, just to see how gullible you are?:licking:

 

[wolc123]

I do them in the crockpot. Sometimes with barbeque sauce, other times with cream of mushroom soup to make a gravy. A couple of cottontails cooked on low for 5-6 hours makes a pretty good dinner. The meat all just falls off the bones when they are done. I cant think of an easier way to make them.

 

[arrabil]

I've never understood why a lot of people would eat cottontail rabbits, but wouldn't think of eating a jack rabbit.

People always want to think they are better than some standard they have in their head. You know, cottontails are cute while jack rabbits aren't. I used to chase them with a net I made from a broken tennis racket. Strung a cloth bag into the opening. During the summer we would scare them out from the bushes, then do the "shortstop dive" with arms and net fully extended in hopes they cut in the same direction I did. A few bruises here and there but generally you could get one every couple of hours.

I'll ask the neighbor what breed it is. And its definitely a rabbit. I'll take a picture before I cook it.

 

[Bird]

I never used a net or trap to catch rabbits. Most of what we ate were shot with a .22 rifle, although a few were shot with a shotgun. But there was a pretty small culvert at the end of the driveway; actually just a piece of pipe and occasionally a cottontail would be chased by the dog and run in there to escape. Bad

 

[Bird]

I never used a net or trap for wild rabbits. Most were shot with a .22 rifle and a few with the 12 gauge or the 410 gauge shotgun. But there was a small culvert (actually just a piece of pipe) at the end of the driveway, and a few times the dog chased a cottontail that ran into that pipe. I had a piece of cable long enough to go all the way through the pipe and a "tow sack" (burlap bag) rolled and folded, tied to the end of the cable, so all I had to do was run the cable through the pipe, the rabbit would side step it, then go to the other end and pull the cable through. The sack served as a "stopper" and I'd just pull the rabbit down to my hands. I always hated to kill those rabbits more than shooting them.

 

[arrabil]

12yos shooting things in a park in Brooklyn generally ends up with cops on your ***. Heck, I had to explain myself a couple times as it was.

I never had trouble killing something I was about to eat. Thats nature's way. At the same time I tend to put bugs on a piece of paper and gently take them outside.

They sell them same Polish rabbits here in the supermarket. I'm pretty sure they were $17.99/lb. I didn't buy one specifically because they looked just like the rabbit my neighbor gave me and I'd never seen anything like it before (the price didn't help either). Funny how that worked out.

Wolc123, I was thinking about the crock pot. I hear its generally hard to screw anything up in a crock pot which is the kind of cooking that I need! Anything else but the BBQ sauce? Potatoes or celery or something?

EDIT: $17 not $7

 

[dave1949]

I
Some day I think I'd like to try Hasenpfeffer, but my brother once told me the only inedible rabbit he ever tasted was Hasenpfeffer. There are dozens of recipes, some of which use the rabbit's blood as a thickener for the gravy, and I can do without that. I sold some rabbits that I had slaughtered and dressed to a German lady, but then later she wanted me to catch the blood for her when I dressed the rabbits and I declined. I told her if she wanted the blood caught, she'd have to do it herself, so she bought live rabbits for that purpose.

Hassenpfeffer translates to 'peppered hare'. I saw some very large hare occassionally in Germany. Out in green grain or rape fields munching away. It was sort of surreal to see their shoulders, heads and ears sticking up out of the field since I had never seen a large hare before.

I should add that rabbit in German is 'kaninchen', so at least traditionally, Hassenpfeffer would have meant cooking a hare.
Dave.

 

[wolc123]

I generally use a barbeque sauce that is made from worchestershire sauce, water, katchup, vinegar, brown sugar, tobasco, and minced garlic. I pull the bones out before serving over rice. You got me hungry thinking about this, and rabbit season closed here last week. Seldom does a rabbit make it to the freezer at my house.