KEYS TO BETTER RABBITING
Cooking Rabbits
Editor’s Note: Rabbit hunting comes in several
variations, and so do methods to cook rabbits.
Besides loving to hunt rabbits, I truly enjoy eating
the rabbits I harvest. To have a tasty rabbit to eat,
you must first care for the rabbit in the field. I immediately
field dress any rabbit I bag for  two
reasons. I eliminate unnecessary weight, and the meat
tends to cool quicker that way. At day's end, I skin
my game and cool it in an ice chest.
To remove the wild taste of the rabbit, I quarter it
and soak the meat in salty water overnight. If the rabbit
is a large cottontail or a big swamp rabbit, I’ll
parboil it on top of the stove in water to tenderize
the meat before I cook it.
Rabbits are great eating any way you cook them if you
follow the recipes in the many wild-game cookbooks.
And rabbit hunting is fun any way you go about it. A
quick shot at a rabbit you've flushed yourself is one
kind of thrill, no less and no more exciting in its
way as the music of a beagle pack on a hot trail. The
main thing is to hunt safe and have fun.
Here’s two of our family’s favorite recipes
for rabbit.
Celestial Rabbit with Mustard Sauce
1 pound 1-inch-size chunks of rabbit meat
1/3 cup water
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup cornmeal
1 egg
3 tsp. sesame seeds
1/3 cup flour
Mustard Sauce:
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup prepared mustard
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. paprika
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
Heat oil in skillet to about 350 or 375 degrees. Mix
last 6 ingredients. Dip the rabbit pieces into the mixture,
and drop several pieces into the oil at a time. Allow
the rabbit to brown, turning once and then draining
on paper towels. Mix the ingredients for the mustard
sauce together into a small bowl with fork until well-blended.
This recipe makes enough sauce for dipping approximately
3 pounds of fried rabbit pieces.
Rabbit Pie
3 cups cooked rabbit meat
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup sifted flour
2 cups rabbit broth
Salt, pepper
 Dice
rabbit meat coarsely. Heat butter in large frying pan.
Add green pepper and onion and cook about 5 minutes.
Blend in flour and cook until mixture bubbles. Gradually
pour in broth, stirring constantly. Cook until thick
and smooth and add salt and pepper. Add meat to sauce
and heat thoroughly. Pour mixture into shallow baking
dish or pan and let stand while preparing pastry (below).
Serves 5 to 6.
Pastry
1 cup sifted flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup shortening
2 tablespoons cold water
Mix flour and salt, cut in shortening, and moisten
with water. Roll out the pastry and cut slits to allow
steam to escape. Fit pastry to top of dish or pan, crimping
edges of crust. Bake pie in 425 degrees oven 15 to 20
minutes, or until crust browns and sauce bubbles.
Rabbit Smothered in Onions
1-3 pound rabbit, cut in serving pieces
flour
3 large onions, sliced
3 tablespoons shortening
1 cup sour cream
Salt, pepper
Dredge rabbit pieces in flour. Then sauté onions
in shortening in skillet, remove from skillet, and sauté
rabbit in remaining shortening in skillet until brown
on all sides. Cover rabbit with the onion; pour sour
cream over top of rabbit and onion. Cover and cook slowly
for 1 hour on top of stove, or bake in 350 degree oven
35 to 45 minutes. Uncover, bake 15 minutes longer. Season
with salt and pepper. Serves 2 to 3.
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