Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Eating and Drinking => Cooking, Storing and Preserving => Topic started by: elibump on October 17, 2010, 17:21

Title: Think I'm doing something wrong with rabbit.....
Post by: elibump on October 17, 2010, 17:21
so please, can someone advise me.

The 3 of our rabbits that we've cooked so far have been really tough even though I followed the recipes (Floyd' rabbit in mustard twice, Angela Humpreys' roast rabbit stuffed with hazelnuts and apricots) to the letter.  We gave one to a friend who followed the Floyd recipe and she says it was perfect, we thought we hadn't cooked ours for long enough.

What am I doing wrong?  Any ideas would be appreciated.

Eli xx

PS  Recipes say cook for 1 hour at gas mark 6
Title: Re: Think I'm doing something wrong with rabbit.....
Post by: Dirt Diver on October 17, 2010, 18:09
We had Hare last week and it was just great :D
Braised with alcohol and I did Rabbit last time in the same way.

I do feel you have to do a good strong sauce and cook well. It does not do short cooking.
Title: Re: Think I'm doing something wrong with rabbit.....
Post by: mumofstig on October 17, 2010, 18:50
You need looooooooong slow cooking for wild rabbit ...but it's lovely once it is cooked ;)
Title: Re: Think I'm doing something wrong with rabbit.....
Post by: Ice on October 17, 2010, 20:01
As usual, Mum knows best.  An hour at gas 6 sounds like a recipe for disaster, geddit? ::)
Title: Re: Think I'm doing something wrong with rabbit.....
Post by: elibump on October 19, 2010, 09:22
Thanks MoS and Ice( :tongue2:) but they're not wild rabbits (well they may be pretty annoyed about being eaten, seriously though) they are rabbits we've raised for the pot and not too old to be eaten so I'm really at a loss with what the recipes say and what we're getting.

Any further help would be very much appreciated.

Eli xx
Title: Re: Think I'm doing something wrong with rabbit.....
Post by: CZ Silhouette on October 19, 2010, 10:06
I have never roasted a rabbit since getting a pressure cooker.
15-20 mins in a pressure cooker will have the meat falling off the bone. Even a tough old buck will come out tender.
Rabbit is very nice made into burgers or sausages. You will need to add some fat such as sausage meat or belly pork fat.

4 boned rabbit's will make about 4lb of meat. I don't bother with the front legs, as they are too fiddly. I cook them for the dogs and if you haven’t got dogs use them for making some stock. A good winter rabbit with lots of fat makes an excellent stock that will set to jelly & is ideal for using in pork or rabbit pies.

For every 4lb of rabbit meat I add 1lb of sausage meat. Finely chopped onion softened in butter. Herbs of your choice. I use 1tsp of each sage, thyme & marjoram, then salt & pepper. Chillies go really well with rabbit so just add finely chopped to taste.
This should make about 12-14 really good sized burgers.