Rabbit Recipes - Recipes for Rabbit, Hare and Squirrel | Hank Shaw (2024)

FAQs

What do you soak rabbit in before cooking? ›

A Brine Keeps the Rabbit Moist

And while the combination seasons the rabbit nicely, the buttermilk and salt give you a little wiggle room to ensure that the cooked rabbit doesn't dry out.

The best way to get tender rabbit meat is by butchering them around the 12-week mark (depending on the breed) and cooking them low and slow. A crockpot is a fantastic way of cooking rabbit for tender, fall-off-the-bone meat.

Hare is richer, darker and stronger in flavour than its nearest cousin, rabbit (which, like goats and sheep, come from the same family but are entirely different species).

In order to tenderize the meat, we are going to marinate the rabbit overnight. For the deep fried rabbit, I prepared a buttermilk base with some rosemary and thyme. The recipe below will give you the exact ingredients. Make sure it soaks for a minimum of 12 hours, but 24 is better.

The meat is slightly darker and has more flavor, but can also be slightly tougher,” says Eley, who explains that the best way to prepare a wild rabbit is to soak it in either a saltwater solution or buttermilk. Saltwater will draw out any remaining blood and start to tenderize it.

Simmer everything together very gently until the meat is tender and comes away from the bone easily. This can be anywhere between 1 ½ to 3 hours, depending on the vintage of the hare.

These animals provide a good source of meat. Rabbit/hare is usually baked, boiled or cooked in stews.

Cooking Temperature

Your mileage may very, but cooking at a low temperature will make your life easier by preventing your rabbit from becoming tough — you won't have to babysit it as much as high-temperature cooking. In the oven, this means 250f is sufficient for roasting in a pot, which will take ~2-2.5 hrs.

How do you tenderize a rabbit before cooking? ›

Marinating the rabbit in buttermilk for two to eight hours helps to tenderize the meat and add flavor and moisture to the finished product. Start the recipe with a buttermilk soak. The enzymes and acids in buttermilk help to both tenderize and add flavor and moisture to the lean rabbit meat.

For safety, the United States Department of Agriculture recommends cooking rabbit to an internal temperature of at least 160 °F (71 °C). The use of a food thermometer is recommended.

“Squirrel is one of the most sustainable proteins you can cook really. It is almost exactly the same in taste as rabbit,” Tisdall-Downes' told the Evening Standard. “It's not as gamey as rabbit, it's nice white meat.

Rabbit's low popularity also stems from the agricultural industry as a whole. Many farm animals had dual purposes or were low maintenance to raise and breed, making them staples of the agricultural industry. Chickens provide eggs, pigs live off waste products and scraps, and cows provide milk.

The Organs: The heart, liver, and kidneys are tasty and nutritious and typically used for sausages and stuffing, though you can also use it for a rabbit pot pie. Rabbit blood is also used for different stews and recipes, as well as blood pudding and sausages.

Lots of them recommend soaking the rabbit in saltwater overnight before cooking.

Marinating the rabbit in buttermilk for two to eight hours helps to tenderize the meat and add flavor and moisture to the finished product. Start the recipe with a buttermilk soak. The enzymes and acids in buttermilk help to both tenderize and add flavor and moisture to the lean rabbit meat.

Fill a small bowl with warm water and add a few drops of gentle baby shampoo or castile soap. Dip a cotton ball in the solution and gently cleanse around the rabbit's anus, taking care to wet only the area that needs to be cleaned.