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A buffet of bunnies! Now how to cook them?

Badmedicine

Badmedicine

Greetings, Gents! I could use a few recipes from those of you who partake in small-game hunting regularly. You see, this summer has produced an unprecedented explosion in my local rabbit population, which I have all-too-eagerly embraced as a food source. They've fattened all year on soybeans and corn, and now I find myself with a freezer full of gargantuan cottontails (Several of them come in at 5+ pounds, dressed weight). I recall eating fried rabbit several times in my youth, when money was scarce and they were plentiful, and I remember that recipe. I'm also planning to adapt my go-to gumbo recipe to make use of the sudden bounty, but that still won't make much of a dent. I have nearly a hundred pounds of legs and backstraps, and the season has barely begun! Any and all suggestions for utilizing this boon are welcome, from sausages to soups to fricassee. Many thanks in advance, y'all!
 

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Eaaqas

Eaaqas

Lol, I went to a restaurant in Chicago a couple years ago for work. They had a $25 plate of rabbit on the menu.

I'm from AK, so I've eaten a few rabbits in my life, but now I can say that I ate a $25 plate of it! Still not very delicious... Lol
 
ackvil

ackvil

Here is one recipe that works with rabbit, chicken, or squirrel.

Take some panko in a dish. Add salt and pepper to the mix. Dampen the meat with milk and dip in the panko mixture. Brown the pieces in oil. Remove the rabbit and place in a oven proof shallow dish. Add a glass of beer to the mixture, cover the dish with tin foil and bake in an oven at 300 degrees for about an hour.

My mother used to make rabbit with a tomato sauce. She would coat the rabbit with flour and brown it. She would remove the rabbit to a separate dish and cover it. In the pan she would brown some garlic and onions, the add some sliced red peppers, and sliced mushrooms. When the vegetables are cooked she would return the rabbit to the pan containing the vegetables and add salt, pepper, oregano, thyme, and basil to the mixture. She would then add some marina sauce or chopped tomatoes (depending on her mood :001_smile) a few ounces of red win and cover the dish. She would usually simmer the mixture for about 30 to 40 minutes. She would then remove the cover and if the mixture was too watery she would boil it down in the pan (uncovered).

It's funny but I come from an Italian background and my mother would get farm raised rabbit at a local butcher store. My wife is of German-American background and her brothers are avid hunters and they get both rabbit and squirrel. My brother-in-law has prepared the first recipe and I have prepared the second. There are never any leftovers when we have rabbit.
 
Vespasian

Vespasian

I've had god luck with this sort of simple cacciatore recipe.

Roast in olive oil cut up onion with skin on, 2 celery stalks, 3 carrots until brown. Deglaze pan with 1/2 cup marsala. Scrape everything into stock pot/pan, add 2 pints water, a few pepper corns, bay leaf, simmer until reduced by half. Strain, discard solids.

In dutch oven, brown floured rabbit pieces. I'm not sure what a "backstrap" is, so this is for 8 or so legs. Explain "backstrap," and I'll probably have an idea. Is it connected to the leg, or a separate piece?

When brown, remove, add chopped 2 carrots and six minced shallots. When browned, add 3 stalks chopped celery and 3 minced cloves of garlic. In five minutes or so, deglaze the dutch oven with 1/2 cup marsala. One can San Marzano tomatoes, with juice. Break up tomatoes with wooden spoon. Bring to a simmer. Add 1 cup of vegetable stock, bring back to simmer. Too thick? Add a little more stock. Too thin, add a little flour to a few tablespoons of hot stock. Make sure it all dissolves (no lumps!), mix with sauce in dutch oven. Put in rabbit legs. You want them to be just submerged. Two or three fresh thyme twigs. Cover with parchment paper, then lid of dutch oven. Braise in the oven at 300 degrees for one hour. Check every 15 minutes, you want a gentle simmer. Add a little stock and stir sauce if too thick. Add big handful pitted Sicilian dry-cured black olives. Pull out the thyme twigs.

15 minutes more. I serve just as it is, on rice or noodles. Sauce on top. Lots of Italian parsley on top. People sometimes faff around with the sauce. Don't bother.
 
Badmedicine

Badmedicine

Wow, some great recipes! Vespasian, "Backstrap" is the term I've always heard used for the two big muscles that lay along the spine (In humans, it would be the latissimus dorsi group, is hogs and cattle it would be the loin). Mmmm... Marsala and good olives. Cook an old boot in that, and I'm game. :drool:
 
ouch

ouch

Stjynnkii membörd dummpsjterd
Keeping with the Looney Tunes theme, good old Louisiana Back-bay Bayou Bunny Bordelaise, a la Antoine.
 
VerbaVolant

VerbaVolant

Badmedicine said:
Any and all suggestions for utilizing this boon are welcome...
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My parents raised rabbits and I can say that I ate more rabbits than chicken when I was young. I hunt them now, not as successfully as my father...

My very favorite recipe is braised rabbit with lots of onions and tons of olives. I love it cold, as a snack..., with a good ale... maybe two... make it a loong snack.

My mother used to make it this way:

La Mamma And Her Braised Rabbit, Coniglio al Rossesse e Olive

I could just write down the recipe but reading that article and watching the vid is much more enjoyable.
 
Vespasian

Vespasian

Badmedicine said:
Wow, some great recipes! Vespasian, "Backstrap" is the term I've always heard used for the two big muscles that lay along the spine (In humans, it would be the latissimus dorsi group, is hogs and cattle it would be the loin). Mmmm... Marsala and good olives. Cook an old boot in that, and I'm game. :drool:
Click to expand...
Yes, marsala and olives, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It is great if you use these particular olives, pitted dry or salt-cured Sicilian black olives, but you can use Kalamata black olives in a pinch.

Backstrap. Hmm. Are they attached to the legs? I don't think so. A rabbit loin might dry out too much in an hour-fifteen-minute oven braise.

If this is so, two ideas.:

One, sear and then dunk into the braising leg dutch oven for… the last… I dunno how many minutes. Maybe fifteen? Twenty? Until just done and still juicy.

Two, marinate the loins in olive oil, fresh thyme, mint, lemon juice, black pepper. Grill hot until done medium. Salt at the end of the grilling. Fresh mint and parsley sprinkled on finished dish.

Yum. I'm hungry.
 
zachster

zachster

Back in Greece my grandmother used to stew rabbit whenever my grandfather brought it home from one of his hunts, and serve the rich, savory stew over a mound of sticky rice. It was one of my favorite dishes. Unfortunately, I do not have the recipe, but this looks close and I've been meaning to try it the next time I come across rabbit in the butcher shop (which is not all that likely here in San Francisco): http://honest-food.net/2012/01/06/greek-rabbit-stew/
 
martym

martym

Unacceptably Lasering Chicken Giblets?
I have only eaten rabbit BBQ'ed, fried, in gravy, and in stew. Man they are something.
 
DoctorShavegood

DoctorShavegood

"A Boy Named Sue"
martym said:
I have only eaten rabbit BBQ'ed, fried, in gravy, and in stew. Man they are something.
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Same here. I've eaten a lot of rabbit and a wild cotton tail is very lean. So low and slow is a good rule. I like the braise idea a lot from the above post. At this time of year with the weather cooling down, the stew is king.
 
burg1198

burg1198

zachster said:
Back in Greece my grandmother used to stew rabbit whenever my grandfather brought it home from one of his hunts, and serve the rich, savory stew over a mound of sticky rice. It was one of my favorite dishes. Unfortunately, I do not have the recipe, but this looks close and I've been meaning to try it the next time I come across rabbit in the butcher shop (which is not all that likely here in San Francisco): http://honest-food.net/2012/01/06/greek-rabbit-stew/
Click to expand...

Check your ethnic markets. I can find it in the DC area at them.
 
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