Rabbit

[Bella S.F.]

Read the name of this thread really quickly... did a double-take at "rabbis for dinner". Are they the guest or are they are baked? braised? Do you have to serve kosher wine?

[PCL]

Kosher rabbit, now that's interesting.... what about brining the beast? prior to roasting... thighs... mmm...

Anyway, regarding serving size, I shot a big bunny a couple weeks ago, and the thighs and forelegs served 4 no worries with the following sides:

roasted brussel sprouts

roasted carrots

small bowl of lentils with salt pork

dunno how the bunny weighed up, but it was BIG.

[AzianBrewer]

Chop up a couple of slab of bacon. Fry it up and brown your bunny with it. Whatever come next is really up to your taste.

[Andi Pena Longmeadow Farm]

I will probably get "kicked" off eGullet, but I have a rabbit in a pot, and I am scared to hack him/her.

Yea, I know, I know by my signature you would expect a farm girl to cook and hack up any creature that graced my farm. But, I have a sensitive side, and now I am finding it difficult, if not gaggie to hack the bunny.

I am doing this for my husband, who found this little bunny treat at our Wegman's in Hunt Valley, MD. The bunny as it turns out is whole, (thankfully no head - was prepackaged by Dartagnan) but the little front legs are kinda floppin' around.

I threw it in a pot of marinade, and thought if I voiced my professed gaggie behavior, (which I NOT proud of) that someone could give me the first step to either blind fold myself, or take a couple of drinks to make the first move on cutting.

I have cooked for close to 40 years and can cook the damn thing if I could just take the first step...

Has anyone else been in this situation of having a product to cook, and not quite being able to take the first step?

Any ideas or suggestions would be most appreciated.

ETA: one should be blindfolded to check spelling for "blind fold"

Edited May 11, 2006 by Andi Pena Longmeadow Farm (log)

[linlee]

Just think of it as a chicken and do it. It's very similar, just a little long in the back!

Grit your teeth and think CHICKEN.

[jgm]

About halfway into a bottle of red wine, I'm up for about anything. Whenever I have cleaning to do that I don't want to do. . .I get a bottle of wine. But make sure you don't need to run to the store for additional ingredients.

This is not a rabbit; it is not a bunny; it is a HARE.

Does that help?

[I_call_the_duck]

To paraphrase Homer Simpson when he's talking to Lisa about eating lamb, "it's rabbit, not A rabbit."

[jsolomon]

Lessee... rabbits

Slower than me. Check.

Smaller than me. Check.

Dumber than me. Check.

Pass the salt.

I would suggest a braise in red wine (burgundy or similar) with carrots, onions, garlic, and some herbes de Provence.

Don't worry, Thumper. It'll only be uncomfortable for a bit. And, the wine will get you all twitterpated.

[Andi Pena Longmeadow Farm]

thanks for the quick replies, my husband will send thank you notes to all!

I have read so many eGullet threads on this in particular, I can only see the head in Lucy's blog regarding cutting her rabbit. Lucy's blogs are wonderful, wish she was here.

Will try hack in sack tomorrow afternoon............

it's only a chicken, only a duck...........

[mizducky]

How about some creative visualizations? Like, you're the noble backwoods hunter a la Daniel Boone, hunting for subsistence food, and this critter is much-needed food for your pioneer family's supper pot.

Or how about: you have successfully defeated the killer rabbit out of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (without resorting to the Holy Hand Grenade") and now you're triumphantly preparing your victory feast?

Or how about: you're a resident of another planet, where chickens just happen to be flightless and have four legs? (After all, wings are really nothing more than forelegs adapted for flight ... )

Hmmm ... come to think of it, maybe a couple glasses of wine would help these visualizations along ...

[jsolomon]

Hasenpfeffer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gads, that brings memories of Yosemite Sam!

[saskanuck]

Or Elmer Fudd! "Kill da wabbit, kill da wabbit!"

I don't think I could cook rabbit either.

[petite tête de chou]

Maybe have a few drinks before hacking away? Liquid courage.

[Andi Pena Longmeadow Farm]

Love all the suggestions, if only Bourdain was here at the farm........

I actually will post a image as soon as I 'snare the hare' with my son's (who is a vegan I might add, which to me makes this even funnier) Canon camera.

This process might help others take the bull by it's horns.

[Live It Up]

I don't think this will help at all, but I've had a very similar experience with rabbit. Let me start by saying I love eating rabbit, and I cook it all the time, but I always have the butcher cut it up for me. Once I bought a whole rabbit and I managed to get through the whole cooking process. However, after I served it up I realized I couldn't eat it and cried hysterically for the whole night. Don't know, there was just something about seeing it on the plate. Perhaps your husband could do the cutting for you?

[Milagai]

Why are you doing this again?

Why twist yourself into such awful knots?

If it's getting to you so much, stop resisting,

BE the bunny, and enjoy yourself a nice bowl

of carrot stew .....

(Anyone else read their kids the Little Golden Book

story of the Tawny Scrawny Lion? )

Milagai

[H. du Bois]

Don't even think about it as rabbit. Call it Lapin, and all will be better.

(I ate ragout de lapin once, loved it, and then realized afterward that I'd broken my number one food rule - never eat anything you've once kept as a pet).

[jsolomon]

Heh, growing up on a farm and being in 4-H, I had much the opposite rearing. We did eat many of our pets.

[TongoRad]

Or Elmer Fudd!  "Kill da wabbit, kill da wabbit!"

I don't think I could cook rabbit either.

←

It would help if you had a spear and magic heww-met.

[scottie]

Just think of how absolutely delicious and tender it will be. One of my best meals of 2005 was a whole roasted rabbit, wrapped in bacon and stuffed with herbs and shallots. Oh, it was so good!

And animals that reproduce that quickly are supposed to be prey species.

[Andi Pena Longmeadow Farm]

Poor bunnie.

After running early this morning, I was determined to use many of the suggestions included above, had a V&T last night, thought "chicken, chicken, chicken" when I came in, got my large meat cleaver and got em'.

Will post more pics later.

ETA: 1) Oh my. Eeerie green belly button thing is fresh basil.

2) Just as weird parallel between fresh fruit, roma tomato and lime to bunnie.

Edited May 12, 2006 by Andi Pena Longmeadow Farm (log)

[lamb]

This makes me think of one of the latest "Sopranos" episodes where restaurant owner Artie shoots a rabbit in his yard that was eating the arugula that he smuggled back from Italy as seedlings. Later on that evening, he prepared the rabbit in the restaurant according to an old family recipe.

In keeping with other advice on the thread, open a bottle of red, but think Sopranos and cook away!

[srhcb]

(Anyone else read their kids the Little Golden Book

story of the Tawny Scrawny Lion? )

Milagai

←

I remember my Dad reading that story to ME! (and I ain't young)

As I recall, (with a Google assist), the Tawny Scrawny Lion's menu consisted of, "monkeys on Monday -- kangaroos on Tuesday -- zebras on Wednesday -- bears on Thursday -- camels on Friday -- and on Saturday, elephants!"

But, The rabbit family (potential Sunday dinner?) ended up convincing him to become a vegetarian!

SB (thinks there should been enough leftover elephant on Sunday for a Quiche or Stir Fry?)

[Artichoke]

What am I missing with rabbit? Perhaps I am, not having the right ones, it was cooked poorly or it is just my proclivity towards certain types of meat, but it does not do much for me.

I have had it two ways, braised and most recently roasted on a rotisserie. Both times I found the meat rather dry and yes, very simlar to chicken. I recognize that rabbit is a very lean meat and perhaps that is my problem, my tastes run to fat; duck, goose, pork belly and rib eye, etc.

I also wonder if there is an issue with the way rabbits in the U.S. are raised. I like my meat to taste like what it is and enjoy a gamey taste It drives me crazy when I have lamb, pork or venison that has been bred to be as mild tasting as possible. I have read European recipes that call for wild hare, has anyone tasted those? Perhaps that is the rabbit flavor I am missing.

As much as I have wanted to, I have never had Civet de lapin. I think a rabbit cooked in a stew of red wine thickend with its own blood sounds delicious.l

[chickenlady]

I have never done rabbit, but I would definitely have to have my husband or the butcher cut it up for me first. That's actually why I've never bought one--they look too much like rabbits!!

In a similar vein, however, a couple of years ago my husband and his friend who grew up on a farm slaughtered some of our excess roosters and I could hardly bring myself to cook them, let alone break them down. But I decided that if I couldn't deal with where my food actually comes from, I'd have to go back to being a vegetarian again. I forced myself to make one dish before our freezer died and wasn't discovered for several days. I was never so happy to have to clean out the freezer!!!