# Rabbit....



## HoppeEL4 (Dec 29, 2010)

Just cooked up my first rabbit tonight. Good, texture somewhere in between white meat chicken and veal. I just kind of overcooked it, a little dry. Not quite used to the timing for it yet, I fried it like chicken, and it was good, but thought maybe some here might have some tips for making it less dry (not necessarily frying, any good recipe)?

BTW, tasted like chicken breast to me, and my poor city husband just could not bring himself to eat it....


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## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

Wrap with bacon an bake it. The bacon fat helps with the dryness.

Rabbit stew be a good way ta get newbies ta try it as be rabbit sausage.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

I agree about the bacon. :2thumb:

Also try rabbit and dumplings ... yummy!


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## crazychickenlady (Jun 30, 2011)

I don't raise rabbits anymore...my family prefers to eat the chicken I raise over the rabbits that I used to raise...oh well.

I almost always cooked the rabbits in the crockpot with a broth or bbq sauce. They tend to be more dry because they have so little fat on them.


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## HoppeEL4 (Dec 29, 2010)

I don't know about the fat....these guys had some on them, maybe we fed them too well? The bacon, of course it always does, sounds good. Any meat wrapped with bacon is good. We liked the back loin piece really well. 

I think I might try a more "French" style of cooking it, soak overnight in milk, pat dry, dredge in seasoned flour, brown and then finish in the over in the drippings and some broth, or maybe some cooking wine (just a little, this is not a taste we are used to).

Found a video by that guy on Food Network that eats weird foods, he cooked it this way a little, then gave it a spin on a grill for a smokey taste....anything BBQ'd is also good.


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## IndigoLight (Apr 15, 2010)

Yes, try the French style.
And if you like sour cream, add some (or a lot ) to the broth, let the rabbit simmer in it. Yum! :2thumb:


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## HoppeEL4 (Dec 29, 2010)

As with bacon, everythings good with sour cream :2thumb:.


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## IndigoLight (Apr 15, 2010)

HoppeEL4 said:


> As with bacon, everything is good with sour cream :2thumb:.


Indeed, my friend :beercheer:


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## Jimmy24 (Apr 20, 2011)

Fried wild rabbit is one of my favorites!!! Been a while since I had domesticated...

Soak over night in milk, dip in egg wash, drege in bread crumbs.

Fry in peanut oil at low temp...275-300 till golden color...

Serve with fresh collard greens, baked sweet potatoes and home made biscuits...

You can substitute **** and just as good if not better...

Jimmy


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## HoppeEL4 (Dec 29, 2010)

Jimmy, peanut oil is not a staple up here, it is something of an oddity and expensive, so we use vegetable oil. However, I am sure that peanut oil would add a nice taste to it. So, collard greens, you have to explain that one...how do you prepare those, and are they like spinach?


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## CVORNurse (Oct 19, 2008)

As to your city raised hubby.. I was an extremely picky eater as a child. Daddy raised and butchered rabbits for a couple of years. Me being the picky eater, I wouldn't eat them. I was starting to soften when one night my mama told me she had fried an all white meat chicken. Kinda figured what was going on, but went along with it. So perhaps you could manage to disguise the rabbit as something else. After a few times, confess(if he isn't the type to throw it back up at you)

Lots of good suggestions on ways to cook rabbit. My favorite was always fried to brown, then into the oven smothered in milk gravy to finish cooking for, well, not sure how long, until the meat is tender enough to fall off the bones. Mama used to fix this for lunch occasionally at our restaurant and it went over very well with our customers. Can't remember the other veggies but she would make homemade mashed taters as the starch.


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## Jimmy24 (Apr 20, 2011)

HoppeEL4 said:


> Jimmy, peanut oil is not a staple up here, it is something of an oddity and expensive, so we use vegetable oil. However, I am sure that peanut oil would add a nice taste to it. So, collard greens, you have to explain that one...how do you prepare those, and are they like spinach?


No peanut oil?!?! OMG I'd die without it. Nothing better to fry fish in period. Peanut does not pick up flavors, it has a long life in use, handles heat very good, stores well.

You ever grow broccoli or brussel sprots? Leaves are the same, so you could use them to try it out. Your part of the world should be collard growing heaven. They love cool and damp. We say down here they aren't real good till the 1st frost.

Large dark green heavy leaves. Cut them, remove the stem all the way thru the leaf, wash REAL good. prepare as you would turnip greens or spinach. Just cook down with light salt and a peice of bacon/ham.

I love them!!!

Jimmy


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## gypsysue (Mar 27, 2010)

HoppeEL4 said:


> Jimmy, peanut oil is not a staple up here, it is something of an oddity and expensive


Same here until about the last 6 months. Some of the stores have started carrying peanut oil in gallon jugs, and it's right in the same price range as gallons of canola and vegetable oils. You're not that far from us, so maybe it'll hit there soon too. Nowdays we primarily use peanut, coconut, and olive oil.

Rabbit and dumplins is our favorite rabbit meal too, but I look forward to trying some of the ideas above, like the bacon, and marinating the rabbit overnight. I learn so many wonderful things from you guys on here!


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## brighteyesLC7 (Aug 4, 2011)

*Favorite Rabbit Recipe*

I've made this (with a few modifications) quite a few times and the results are fantastic. Even people that were squeemish about eating rabbit loved it! Awesome over hand made pappardelle (thick ribbons) pasta.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Rabbit-Ragu-233984


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## HoppeEL4 (Dec 29, 2010)

I would use peanut oil, but have one kid who one night announced his back was itchy, I went to itch it for him and felt some bumps, pulled up the back of his shirt and there were hives...he had just eaten a Reeses PB cup. Has never had it actually diagnosed, but this was just a few years back and he has avoided anything peanut since. We have not gone overboard with the peanut ban in our house, and seems he can get away with not being overtly particular in knowing everything he orders or how close it may have been to peanut products, so I think either he may have grown out of it, or it is a low grade allergy to it? 

Coconut oil gypsysue, I use that for my skin and sinuses (yes a glob in each nostril with head tipped back till it melts and goes where needed, works wonders). I have terribly dry skin and this really heals it too. Never used it for cooking. I like olive oil for cooking, and honestly have not tried much else. 

Rabbit dumplings would go over good here, chicken dumplings are a favorite so why not? The braising method sounds good. Brown and then cook in oven with a diluted cream of chicken soup, then dumplings over the top..........:2thumb:

Collard greens, well I might try it once. We tried growing some Swiss Chard this year, but that and the spinach are awful looking, the soil was too acidic and it could not pull up enough nutrients to grow well. I like spinach fresh, then sauteed in butter till melted with some salt and pepper.


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## Jimmy24 (Apr 20, 2011)

HoppeEL4 said:


> I would use peanut oil, but have one kid who one night announced his back was itchy, I went to itch it for him and felt some bumps, pulled up the back of his shirt and there were hives...he had just eaten a Reeses PB cup. Has never had it actually diagnosed, but this was just a few years back and he has avoided anything peanut since. We have not gone overboard with the peanut ban in our house, and seems he can get away with not being overtly particular in knowing everything he orders or how close it may have been to peanut products, so I think either he may have grown out of it, or it is a low grade allergy to it?
> 
> Coconut oil gypsysue, I use that for my skin and sinuses (yes a glob in each nostril with head tipped back till it melts and goes where needed, works wonders). I have terribly dry skin and this really heals it too. Never used it for cooking. I like olive oil for cooking, and honestly have not tried much else.
> 
> ...


yep, sounds like he's got a peanut allergy. Olive oil is good.

The collards thing along with your Swiss Chard, if the soil is so acidic, then put the lime to it. The different greens are really some of the easiest to raise veggies, IMHO. I broadcast seeds and then thin and minor hoeing, because the weeds and grass are not an issue in the fall and winter.

I love fresh spinach too. I love it with hot bacon pieces and then wilt the leaves with the hot bacon greese....yummy, making me hungry now....:beercheer:

Jimmy


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## neil-v1 (Jan 22, 2010)

Youtube has some good recipes for rabbit on video. They look awesome. I am planning on raising New Zealand Rabbits in the next couple months myself. Can't wait.


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## HoppeEL4 (Dec 29, 2010)

Jimmy, the soil was used for blueberry bushes for decades. The neighbor told me that it was her aunts little farm and she had dump truck loads of sawdust hauled in to add for the blueberries.......I feel like it might be a big battle to sweeten it up. We already dumped over two bags into 1350 square feet of soil already.....

This fall I am going to add our own chicken/straw mulch to it, and also have some good decayed mulch from a local landscaping company brought in and then let it all set over winter with a lot of lime. I am hoping this will help. Hardly anything is doing well, and I know from looking at other peoples gardens out here that it has to be because this soil has not been worked for over a decade and when it was, it was only for blueberries (though I am going to plant three bushes of my own in fall).


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