eG Cook-Off #86: Rabbit

[David Ross]

1 minute ago, heidih said:

Lovely rabbit and serving dish is no slouch either. Like your tying in WA and description of taste "slight grass and hay". I live in a place where the hay truck comes and that sweet scent is core for me, (not going to Martha's ham in hay).Thanks for the write up. oh - how did the juniper berries play?

The juniper was very light, but present.  Next time I might use a little gin somewhere along the way to accent the juniper flavor.  My family probably wouldn't eat this and say the rabbit was "gamey."  It wasn't.  I've had wild venison and it can get very gamey tasting.  That's why I like the reference to slight grass and hay.  I'm now convinced to prepare rabbit as a regular rotation at home.  By the way, the serving dish is something I bought years ago at a Mexican market.  I spotted in on the shelf and thought it would  accent the rabbit and give it a sort of French countryside look.  And the rabbit, the next day, was still delicious.

[rotuts]

@David Ross 

 

I ike the pic of your mise

 

thanks

 

 

Edited March 4, 2021 by rotuts (log)

[heidih]

45 minutes ago, David Ross said:

.  I'm now convinced to prepare rabbit as a regular rotation at home.  

Great - think you mentioned fresh  rabbit in spring at great price. 4H kids in your area maybe also? 

[David Ross]

10 minutes ago, heidih said:

Great - think you mentioned fresh  rabbit in spring at great price. 4H kids in your area maybe also? 

Yes 4H too.  I found a local Facebook group that discusses both rabbits as pets but also for meat.  They have been great in giving me local sources and the group is open to those of us who cook with rabbit, those who keep them as pets and those who breed rabbits.  

[David Ross]

Has anyone ever fried rabbit?  I was thinking about maybe doing a version of Szechuan Crispy Beef but using rabbit in place of the beef.  What do you think?

[Anna N]

6 minutes ago, David Ross said:

Has anyone ever fried rabbit?  I was thinking about maybe doing a version of Szechuan Crispy Beef but using rabbit in place of the beef.  What do you think?

I think of rabbit as needing a fair bit of cuddling while alive and a fair bit of coddling in the pot. I just don’t think it would respond well to this treatment. But I am certainly not speaking from experience. I will be interested to see the input of people who have more experience cooking rabbit. 

[liuzhou]

55 minutes ago, David Ross said:

Has anyone ever fried rabbit?  I was thinking about maybe doing a version of Szechuan Crispy Beef but using rabbit in place of the beef.  What do you think?

 

Sure. At least one of the dishes I've already mentioned involved frying the rabbit. The Sichuan lazi rabbit in this post was fried. Many Chinese, perhaps most, rabbit dishes are fried.

 

Edited March 5, 2021 by liuzhou (log)

[KennethT]

49 minutes ago, David Ross said:

Has anyone ever fried rabbit?  I was thinking about maybe doing a version of Szechuan Crispy Beef but using rabbit in place of the beef.  What do you think?

I believe that @Shelbys preferred rabbit treatment is to fry it....

[Shelby]

Yeah he's right .  Wild rabbit is so tough that I pressure cook it after it's fried, but domestic should be just fine.

[KennethT]

5 minutes ago, Shelby said:

Yeah he's right .  Wild rabbit is so tough that I pressure cook it after it's fried, but domestic should be just fine.

Is there a reason why you don't pressure cook first, then dry it off and fry second?

[David Ross]

21 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

 

Sure. At least one of the dishes I've already mentioned involved frying the rabbit. The Sichuan lazi rabbit in this post was fried. Many Chinese, perhaps most, rabbit dishes are fried.

 

Thanks I knew you would have suggestions.

[liuzhou]

1 minute ago, KennethT said:

Is there a reason why you don't pressure cook first, then dry it off and fry second?

 

You just beat me to it!

[Shelby]

2 minutes ago, KennethT said:

Is there a reason why you don't pressure cook first, then dry it off and fry second?

I did it once that way...with chicken I think....anyway, the coating all fell off.  I never tried again...maybe it was just one time failure?

[rotuts]

@Shelby 

 

thought you SV'd that wild rabbit

[Shelby]

Just now, rotuts said:

@Shelby 

 

thought you SV'd that wild rabbit

I did the last one, not the fried ones from a long time ago.

[KennethT]

1 hour ago, Shelby said:

I did it once that way...with chicken I think....anyway, the coating all fell off.  I never tried again...maybe it was just one time failure?

I wonder if it was too wet first?  Did you dry them with a paper towel prior to coating?  I'm assuming you did the standard dredge in flour before any kind of batter/egg/wet application right?

[heidih]

This is how Hank Shaw fries his and it is similar to many standard country recipies I've seen. He gets alot of respect..https://honest-food.net/fried-rabbit-recipe/

[Duvel]

21 hours ago, David Ross said:

Next time I might use a little gin somewhere along the way to accent the juniper flavor. 

I use Gin frequently instead of juniper (especially the straightforward types like Beefeater) in braises. Most probably because the flavors seem fresher (which could be a turnover thing 😉) ...

[David Ross]

1 hour ago, heidih said:

This is how Hank Shaw fries his and it is similar to many standard country recipies I've seen. He gets alot of respect..https://honest-food.net/fried-rabbit-recipe/

Wow that looks good on a bed of grits.  I may have to change my thinking of what I plan to make next.

[Anna N]

4 hours ago, David Ross said:

Has anyone ever fried rabbit?  I was thinking about maybe doing a version of Szechuan Crispy Beef but using rabbit in place of the beef.  What do you think?

So this is what David was proposing and this is what I was responding to. Is anyone on board for this particular preparation of rabbit?

[David Ross]

I'll be off to the store tommorrow to buy another rabbit for my next dish.  In the meantime, look at what I came across, a recipe for rabbit that was served on the Northern Pacific Railroad passenger trains.  I'm an avid fan on passenger trains from the 1930's-1960's, with a focus on dining on the trains.  The book, "Dining Car Line to the Pacific," by William McKenzie, is a history of dining onboard the Northern Pacific.  The best known passenger train of the line was the North Coast Limited that traveled between Chicago.  For years the railroad had their own dairy and egg farm in Carnation, WA, and the commissary in Minneapolis was where all the provisions were kept along with the thousands of pieces of china, silver and linens that were placed on the dining cars.  Last week I was just going through the book to look at some recipes, and what do I find?  A recipe for Baked Rabbit Pie! 

 

What's interesting is that we think of a pie, or pot pie, as a meat fillng with a crust baked on top. In this recipe, the rabbit filling is poured into a baked bottom pie shell and then covered with a baked "pastry" crust. I wonder if it was a pie shell crust on the bottom and puff "pastry" on the top?  But I was pretty pleased to see that rabbit was such a standard back in the day that it was featured on a dining car menu.

 

 

Butcher Shop at the Minneapolis Commissary-

 

The Northern Pacific was famous for the "Great Big Baked Potato," a huge Idaho Russet, and their holiday fruitcakes.  The Great Big Baked Potato was advertised in newspapers, on billboards and delivery trucks. Passengers were able to purchase fruitcakes onboard to take home for Christmas.  In fact, I still use the Great Northern Fruitcake recipe today as one of about 4 different fruitcakes I make. In those days, the food was all prepared onboard in the tiny kitchen in the dining car.  This wasn't the prepared and microwaved food served on airlines and some trains today.  This is the rabbit recipe:

Baked Rabbit Pie-

1 large rabbit, cut in pieces

2 cups water

3 tbsp butter

1/4 cup chopped onion

2 parsley sprigs

1/2 cup chopped mushrooms

4 tbsp flour

1/4 cup white wine

1/8 tsp pepper

1/8 tsp salt

dash ground nutmeg

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 pie shell, 9-inch, baked

1 pastry cover, 7-inch, baked

 

-In a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan, place rabbit and water.  Bring to a boil, lower heat, and cook for 30 minutes.  Drain rabbit, reserving 1 cup broth.  Remove rabbit from bones and cut in small pieces. 

-In same saucepan, melt butter, add cut-up rabbit. Saute rabbit for 5 minutes.  Add onion, parsley and mushrooms, saute 5 minutes onger. 

-Stir in flour. Add wine, 1 cup reserved broth, pepper, salt and nutmeg. Cook for 30 minutes or until rabbit is tender.  Stir in lemon juice. Pour into prepared pie shell and top with pastry cover. Makes one 9-ince pie.

-Variation: Cook small amounts of carrots and potatoes separately, add during last 5 minutes.

 

 

 

 

[David Ross]

5 minutes ago, David Ross said:

I'll be off to the store tommorrow to buy another rabbit for my next dish.  In the meantime, look at what I came across, a recipe for rabbit that was served on the Northern Pacific Railroad passenger trains.  I'm an avid fan on passenger trains from the 1930's-1960's, with a focus on dining on the trains.  The book, "Dining Car Line to the Pacific," by William McKenzie, is a history of dining onboard the Northern Pacific.  The best known passenger train of the line was the North Coast Limited that traveled between Chicago.  For years the railroad had their own dairy and egg farm in Carnation, WA, and the commissary in Minneapolis was where all the provisions were kept along with the thousands of pieces of china, silver and linens that were placed on the dining cars.  Last week I was just going through the book to look at some recipes, and what do I find?  A recipe for Baked Rabbit Pie! 

 

What's interesting is that we think of a pie, or pot pie, as a meat fillng with a crust baked on top. In this recipe, the rabbit filling is poured into a baked bottom pie shell and then covered with a baked "pastry" crust. I wonder if it was a pie shell crust on the bottom and puff "pastry" on the top?  But I was pretty pleased to see that rabbit was such a standard back in the day that it was featured on a dining car menu.

 

 

Butcher Shop at the Minneapolis Commissary-

 

The Northern Pacific was famous for the "Great Big Baked Potato," a huge Idaho Russet, and their holiday fruitcakes.  The Great Big Baked Potato was advertised in newspapers, on billboards and delivery trucks. Passengers were able to purchase fruitcakes onboard to take home for Christmas.  In fact, I still use the Great Northern Fruitcake recipe today as one of about 4 different fruitcakes I make. In those days, the food was all prepared onboard in the tiny kitchen in the dining car.  This wasn't the prepared and microwaved food served on airlines and some trains today.  This is the rabbit recipe:

Baked Rabbit Pie-

1 large rabbit, cut in pieces

2 cups water

3 tbsp butter

1/4 cup chopped onion

2 parsley sprigs

1/2 cup chopped mushrooms

4 tbsp flour

1/4 cup white wine

1/8 tsp pepper

1/8 tsp salt

dash ground nutmeg

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 pie shell, 9-inch, baked

1 pastry cover, 7-inch, baked

 

-In a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan, place rabbit and water.  Bring to a boil, lower heat, and cook for 30 minutes.  Drain rabbit, reserving 1 cup broth.  Remove rabbit from bones and cut in small pieces. 

-In same saucepan, melt butter, add cut-up rabbit. Saute rabbit for 5 minutes.  Add onion, parsley and mushrooms, saute 5 minutes onger. 

-Stir in flour. Add wine, 1 cup reserved broth, pepper, salt and nutmeg. Cook for 30 minutes or until rabbit is tender.  Stir in lemon juice. Pour into prepared pie shell and top with pastry cover. Makes one 9-ince pie.

-Variation: Cook small amounts of carrots and potatoes separately, add during last 5 minutes.

 

 

 

 

I think I would add carrots and potatoes, and peas, to this pie if I made it today.  I prefer just a top crust, so I think I would add puff pastry to the top.  What I really liked in the recipe was how they cooked the rabbit in water then took the meat off the bones and saved the broth.  I would add some herbs and spices to the water to make a more flavorful broth, but I like the idea of it.

[heidih]

Interesting - I think the mushrooms,  nutmeg and lemon juice made it "elegant". Wonder if they had real lemons on board >>> exotic. On the use of rabbit perhaps this was before BigAgra told us the mainstream choices were chicken, pork, and beef, turkey for Thanksgiving, and ham for Easter.  I am with you on vegetables. Aromatics - thyme? Also a splash of sherry and bit of mustard - not to overwhelm but to spark it up a bit. Like the idea of a demi feuilleté on top. Have fun!

[David Ross]

11 minutes ago, heidih said:

Interesting - I think the mushrooms,  nutmeg and lemon juice made it "elegant". Wonder if they had real lemons on board >>> exotic. On the use of rabbit perhaps this was before BigAgra told us the mainstream choices were chicken, pork, and beef, turkey for Thanksgiving, and ham for Easter.  I am with you on vegetables. Aromatics - thyme? Also a splash of sherry and bit of mustard - not to overwhelm but to spark it up a bit. Like the idea of a demi feuilleté on top. Have fun!

I wondered the same things about the lemons.  A number of the recipes call for lemon juice.  They would have been put on board in either Chicago, Minneapolis or the few smal commissaries along the route, and of course shipped up there from probably California or another warm State.  

[Owtahear]

On ‎3‎/‎5‎/‎2021 at 10:24 AM, liuzhou said:

 

Sure. At least one of the dishes I've already mentioned involved frying the rabbit. The Sichuan lazi rabbit in this post was fried. Many Chinese, perhaps most, rabbit dishes are fried.

 

That's fantastic and I will definitely try this!