Italian Rabbit Recipe - Braised Rabbit | Hank Shaw (2024)

FAQs

How do you cook rabbit so it's not tough? ›

Rabbit is easy to over-cook, because it tends to cook more quickly than other types of meat and poultry. 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.

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.

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.

Because of its popularity in Italy, you'll find many recipes for rabbit with, or wrapped in, pasta, or served with polenta. For a lighter dish, opt for side orders of green vegetables such as spinach, petit pois, asparagus or braised lettuce.

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.

water over rabbit. Cover and cook on low until meat is very tender (3-4 hours for a young rabbit, 4-6 hours for an older rabbit). The crock pot is a foolproof way to cook rabbits, especially older ones. The meat always comes out moist and tender.

Marinating the rabbit for 2 hours is actually ideal since the marinade will have more time to permeate and flavor the meat. Preheat the oven to 425º. Prepare an ovenproof frying pan by adding the butter to it and warming it over medium-high heat.

Here, Eley explains how to tame the flavor of wild rabbit.

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.

Turn the skin fur side in and pull it over a blunt edge like the back of a big knife. You grap each end in one hand and pull it back and forth until it softens up. This process usually is best done during the drying process after tanning.

Citrus and Mediterranean herbs always blend well. Rabbit can dry out quite easily, but roasting it in olive oil preserves its delicacy and flavor. Simmering the rabbit in a generous quantity of olive oil is a technique that dates back to antiquity and has many advantages.

Why is rabbit meat so tasty? ›

Most people find rabbit meat pleasant to eat, as it has a mild flavor that can be seasoned to taste and used in many dishes, including stews and stir-fries. Rabbit is a lean protein, which means that it's good for your heart and won't contribute to high cholesterol or heart disease.

A: This is more of an evolutionary question, as there does not seem to be a good medical reason behind it. As with most animals, the softer and less exposed parts of their bodies contain very fine hairs and thin skin as they do not need the protection that thicker skin and more coarse hair will provide.

Roast rabbit on the bone for flavour and to keep it moist. Cook young meat quickly in the oven, pan fry or on the barbecue. Slow cook older meat with bacon or chorizo. Be careful not to let rabbit dry out.

Farmed rabbit is tender, and can be as soft as butter provided it is cooked a certain way. Wild rabbit has to be cooked for a long time in a wet sauce before it will yield, and it doesn't roast well.