[Gaiudo]

I had a fantastic day yesterday out in NE Colorado at some Walk-In land blasting doves. Limited out flushing them from the cedar trees. However, I saw tons of very large cottontail rabbits, and though its not yet open season yet it sure will be eventually!

However, I've never cooked rabbit before; any good ideas on how to make a decent meal out of them? I'd like to know before bagging them, as I hate that feeling of "well, I've got them, now what do I DO with them!" The wife says if I can get a decent recipe, she'll cook them up.

[JG2000]

When cooking Cottontail I first soak them in milk for at least an hour. Doesn't matter what kind of milk I use 2% because thats what I have on hand. This removes any unwanted game taste. Then its straight on to the BBQ with lots Spicey Honey Barbeque sauce. Keep putting the sauce on since rabbit is so lean it dries out fast.

[dtalley]

+1 on the BBQ.

I season them up with whatever you prefer and wrap some bacon around it and secure with toothpicks. Cook on BBQ until bacon is done.

[Mantis]

My favorite way so far has been to take the quarters and backstraps and cut them up into bite sized pieces. Dip them in your favorite breading recipe and then deep fry them. Dip the chunks in either blue cheese or BBQ sauce and you have Bunny McNuggets. Delicious !

(I'll admit, I stole this idea from Birddog)

[MCgunner]

Chicken fried, smothered, or rabbit dumplings are all good. Yummy.

[Gaiudo]

On the BBQ recipes, do you throw the entire rabbit on there legs, ribs, backstrap, and all? Or do you take off the backstraps, quarters, etc., and grill them?

The Bunny Dumplings sound good, and so do the dipping sauces! Yummy... gotta get me some next time out.

[NRA4LIFE]

If you like German cooking, try hassenpfeffer. It's a really good thing to do with wild rabbits. Just google it for a recipe.

I also like cooking them like fried chicken as stated above.

[Cougfan2]

One thing you want to be very careful about when cooking rabbit, when you clean them, take a good close look at the liver. If the liver has a bunch of yellowish or whitish spots on it, throw the rabbit away. DO NOT EAT IT. Rabbits sometimes carry a disease called Tularemia (not sure of the spelling). This can make you very sick.:barf:

Normally you are OK if there have been a couple of good freezes. The sick one's will have died off. Just something to watch for.

[Smokey Joe]

Guido--There is a French recipie for rabbit that starts out, "First, make sure your rabbit is dead...."

Having done that, and cleaned and skinned them, you can do anything to a rabbit that you might do to a chicken.

If cooking with dry heat they must be basted, as they are quite lean and easy to dry out, so's you have nothing left but dehydrated rabbit leather for your efforts. Even the dogs would have trouble chewing it. Don't ask me how I know this.

That caveat aside, they are quite amenable to nearly any treatment you'd want. Although NRA4EVR's suggestion of hasenpfeffer is very traditional, and also very tasty. ("Hasen" = "Hares"; "Pfeffer" = "Pepper," therefore, "Peppered Rabbits," German)

Enjoy the hunting. Hope you also have occasion to enjoy the cooking & eating.

[koja48]

Hard to beat Kentucky Fried Cottontail . . . my Grandma used to pressure-cook jackrabbits & snowshoe hares and serve in a gravy sauce . . . they were good too (as was everything else that Sainted Woman made).

[MDig]

Coat Rabbit Quarters with Buttermilk,
Let stand at least 1 hour
Season with Seasoning Salt (my preference is Lawry's) and pepper
Dip in Buttermilk again and then dip in a 50/50 mix of Flour and Cracker Crumbs
Place Quarters in a Large Cast Iron Skillet with at least a 1/4 inch of oil in it.
Let Rabbit Brown and turn to brown on other side.
Set rabbit aside and drain all but one or two TBSP of oil from pan.
Add two TBSP of flour and stir until mix bubbles add about 1 1/2 Cups chicken stock and stir till mixture thickens.
Serve sauce on the side or drizzle over rabbit and serve.

[Gaiudo]

Yummy..... those sound fantastic. October 1st is gonna be a fun time!

Do most of you hunt them with .22, or shotgun? Pellets are bad enough in pheasant, I'd like to avoid them in the rabbit. Out where I was hunting on the prairie, those suckers were moving FAST. However, I imagine in some timber they would be more hunkered down for clean headshots.

Anyhow, back on topic: how do you make rabbit dumplin's, MCgunner?

[Lennyjoe]

I use a shottie for rabbits cause they don't usually wait around for a rifle shot here.

BBQ'd rabbit is a fine feast. I think I'll give MDig's recipe a try next time!

[NRA4LIFE]

Here's another good one:

Cut the rabbit in pieces, like chicken, and roll them liberally in seasoned flour (salt, pepper, dried parsely, dried thyme). Brown them very well on all sides in bacon grease in a heavy oven-proof skillet. Remove them to a warm plate and add a diced up onion and a few minutes later 2-3 cloves of minced garlic and a 2 cups of sliced mushrooms. Saute until tender 4-5 minutes. Deglaze this mixture with a cup of dry white wine. Cook this a few minutes to evaporate the alcohol and add a can of chicken stock. Bring this up to a boil and stir a little bit and then add the rabbit back in. Salt and pepper to taste. Cover this and pop it into a 300 deg. oven until the rabbit is tender. Serve with homemade Spaetzel, noodles, rice, potatoes, etc. Goes good with beer. This is also outstanding with pheasant or grouse.

[Cougfan2]

Do most of you hunt them with .22, or shotgun?

I always hunted them with a shotgun because I hunted in fairly wooded and brushy areas. Believe me, they will be movin' in the Timber too! Most of the time all I would get was a quick snap shot and they were gone!

[MDig]

NRA4Life. Good sounding recipe.
Plus I love Spaetzel
I serve them with Jaegerschnitzle made with Venison Chops.
and a side of brazed red cabbage.

[MCgunner]

Out west, I've used handguns, believe it or not. But, in heavy cover, shotguns are the ticket. Also, I LOVE hunting with a good beagle or pack of beagles and a shotgun. Lotsa fun.

[koja48]

I'm prone to using a 22 . . . my Dad taught me years ago to "look for the eye . . . not many perfectly round black dots in the wild. Don't look for the whole bunny." Lately, I've taken to watching a likely hop-rabbit hang-out from an advantageous point with a highly accurate, scoped 10/22 at the ready. Snowshoe hares are even better choices, as they tend to live in groups. That being said, while I've yet to share the experience, hunting cottontails with the assistance of Beagles & a shotgun is supposed to be a blast . . .

[NRA4LIFE]

I love this thread as it brings back so many unbelievable memories of my youth. We hunted cottontails around where I grew up in WI, but the most fun was snowshoe hare hunting in Northern WI. What a blast. 20 guys, a pack of beagles and a LOT of 22 ammo. In the first 5 years I owned my Ruger Mark I, I bet I shot 5000 rounds through it, minimum.

Back to the subject though. Rabbit/hare meat makes a very good mixture with pork for almost any type of sausage. Sometimes, we'd shoot so many, we boned them for hamburger and breakfast sausage. Delicious.

[Gaiudo]

I've never hunted snowshoe hare (not too much deep snow in Texas and E. Tennessee), but I'm looking forward to hopefully finding some snowshoe areas here in Colorado this fall and winter. I think it should be a blast!!

[koja48]

If you can catch them after a Chinook wind melt-off, there ain't nothing that stands-out more than a white hare thinking it's camouflaged while sitting motionless on brown ground . . .

[Mantis]

+1 on the Spaetzel


I use a double barrel .410 for rabbits. It's fast pointing and I have two shots if needed. I swear, sometimes it seems like the dogs just scare them to death and they drop over from a heart attack. I've seen this more than once.

[Lennyjoe]

A friend of the wife's gave her a spaetzel maker. Now she doesn't have to stand over the pot using two spoons. We have spaetzel more often now.:D

[frogomatic]

roast it like a chicken with some broth, onions, potatos, celery, etc... always turns out good.

[Marlin 45 carbine]

some years back I was demonstrating a welding gas 'noisemaker' I made for New Years Eve to some folk and fired off a shot(tremondous BOOM echoed thru the valley) a good sized rabbit ran out from low thicket in front of us and fell over dead.

[birdv]

some years back I was demonstrating a welding gas 'noisemaker' I made for New Years Eve to some folk and fired off a shot(tremondous BOOM echoed thru the valley) a good sized rabbit ran out from low thicket in front of us and fell over dead.

Do live in Texas?

[davinci]

When I'm 'harvesting' rabbit, I find it hard to get anything larger than a 1" square, maybe 4" long at most.

Cut into strips...
I soak in coffee for about 4 hours in the fridge (start around breakfast time). It leaves very little taste...
then I pat dry on some towels.
Now, put some mustard (or Tabasco) on there (around lunch time)... let it sit until you're ready to cook...anywhere from a minute to hours. You can even freeze them at this stage.

Now, take an egg...make like you're going to scramble it...then put the meat in it, dredge in breadcrumbs seasoned however you like (i like plain) and put in a skillet.

Be sure you cook the rabbit all the way through...no pink whatsoever. Just like bear meat, it can have parasites or other nasties. When you're butchering, make sure the liver has no white spots on it.... that means the meat is not safe to eat. some sort of disease I think, don't remember what it's called.

Oh, rabbit liver is GReat for catfishing. stays on the hook real well and catches em just as good as chicken liver.

[koja48]

Believe the disease is Tularemia . . . Dad wouldn't let us hunt bunnies in any month that didn't have an "R" in the name, figuring cold weather minimized a chance encounter. Bunnies so affected are supposedly quite lethargic.

[Atticus]

Soak overnight in salt water. Next day -Pat dry, dust in flour and brown in bacon drippings. Layer onions and sour cream - rabbit - onion and sour cream in a baking dish -cover. About one hour at 400 deg. IIRC. Yum.

[Joshua C]

Here's a fancy recipe, that worked out real good for me:

Rabbit in Mustard Sauce

2 rabbits (about 2 1/2 pounds each), cut up
Salt
About 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup butter
3 tablespoons brandy, warmed
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions
1/4 cup minced parsley
1 pound small whole mushrooms; or large mushrooms quartered
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 cups whipping cream
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 egg yolks, lightly beaten
Chopped parsley

1. Rinse rabbit and pat dry. Sprinkle rabbit pieces with salt, then dust with flour. Melt 5 to 6 tablespoons of the butter in a wide frying pan over medium-high heat. Add rabbit, a few pieces at a time (do not crowd pan); cook, turning as needed, until browned on all sides.
2. Transfer rabbit to a shallow 3 1/2 to 4-quart baking pan. Move frying pan into an open area, away from exhaust fans and flammable items. Add brandy and ignite; shake or tilt pan until flame dies. Pour brandy mixture over rabbit in baking pan; set aside.
3. Melt remaining 2 to 3 tablespoons butter in frying pan over medium heat. Add onions, minced parsley, and mushrooms; cook, stirring often, until onions are soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in mustard, cream, and lemon juice and bring to a boil. Pour sauce over rabbit. Cover and bake in a 375*F (190*C) oven until rabbit is tender when pierced, about 45 to 55 minutes.
4. Drain cooking liquid into a wide frying pan and bring to a boil; boil for 1 minute. Beat some of the hot liquid into egg yolks, then return yolk mixture to pan. Cook, stirring constantly, until sauce is thickened; do not boil. Season to taste with salt. Transfer rabbit to a serving dish. Pour sauce over rabbit and sprinkle with chopped parsley. Serve.

Makes 6 to 8 servings.

[TehK1w1]

I would love to try rabbit, but down here they carry a parasite that makes them generally unsafe to eat.

[bl4ckd0g]

They're also prone to worm infestations during the warmer months. Like those infected with Tularemia, they're weeded out one week after the first hard freeze.

[Picknlittle]

Chicken fried, smothered, or rabbit dumplings are all good. Yummy.

Some like to soak them in milk, I usually soak them in salt water first for a few hours then milk. Ummm mmmmm. Make ye smack yer granny if she reaches fer em :)

[hamourkiller]

Use rabbit in any good chicken gumbo recipe! MM Good.

[30 cal slob]

...this thread is making my mouth water.

any tips on gutting and skinning? thx.

[308win]

Pan fried with gravy to put on fried potatos is only way to go.