Wild Game Boiled Rabbit

boiled rabbit
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(from The Book of Household Management, edited by Isabella Beeton, 1861)

Ingredients:

rabbit​
water​
onion, mushroom, or liver sauce, or parsley-and-butter​

Instructions:

977. Ingredients. - Rabbit; water.​
Mode. - For boiling, choose rabbits with smooth and sharp claws, as that denotes they are young: should these be blunt and rugged, the ears dry and tough, the animal is old. After emptying and skinning it, wash it well in cold water, and let it soak for about 1/4 hour in warm water, to draw out the blood. Bring the head round to the side, and fasten it there by means of a skewer run through that and the body. Put the rabbit into sufficient hot water to cover it, let it boil very gently until tender, which will be in from 1/2 to 3/4 hour, according to its size and age. Dish it, and smother it either with onion, mushroom, or liver sauce, or parsley-and-butter; the former is, however, generally preferred to any of the last-named sauces. When liver-sauce is preferred, the liver should be boiled for a few minutes, and minced very finely, or rubbed through a sieve before it is added to the sauce.​
Time: A very young rabbit, 1/2 hour; a large one, 3/4 hour; an old one, 1 hour or longer.​
Average cost from 1s to 1s 6d each​
Sufficient for 4 persons​
Seasonable from September to February​
THE RABBIT. - Though this animal is an inhabitant of most temperate climates, it does not reach so far north as the hare. The wild rabbit is a native of Great Britain, and is found in large numbers in the sandy districts of Norfolk, and Cambridgeshire. Its flesh is by some considered to bare a higher flavor than that of the tame rabbit, although it is neither so white, nor so delicate. The animal however becomes larger, and fattier in the tame than in the wild state, but it is not desirable to have it so fat as it can be made.
 
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They are certainly fun to hunt and great to eat. I'm like you, @scone, we fried ours too, but we also made rabbit and dumplings and that is probably my favorite way to eat it them. Great post!
been years but I have a photo oh my 1st lord I was around 10 with my 410 ga, love the sound of them begeals ….
 
been years but I have a photo oh my 1st lord I was around 10 with my 410 ga, love the sound of them begeals ….
Indeed! Listening to those dogs! My goodness - what memories! Early mornings, dogs scratching out of trucks and charging headlong into thickets. Silence, then they hit that scent way off In some bramble. Hearing them boil in the deep woods, the old men mentioning each dog's name simply by their bark. The hunt, the chase, the reward! As a young boy, it was magical! I haven't been in years.... thanks for bringing back memories!
 
Growing up in the 1950's and 60's, my father brother and I raise pedigreed hunting Beagles. We always kept 3 dogs- 2 females and a male and had 2 litters per year. We would keep back 2 or 3 of what we felt were the better pups and sell off or give away the remainder. Those we kept we would train and then sell at a higher price.

I have great memories of being a kid rabbit and quail hunting with the Beagles in the woods bordering potato fields in eastern Long Island or in upstate New York. I remember with great fondness the baying of the dogs as they tongued the rabbits almost beyond hearing in a circular pattern back to the area in which the rabbit was first kicked up. To be a good hunter my father started both my older brother and myself with a single shot 20 gauge Winchester shotgun- "You must make every shot count". he said. A typical weekend hunting party would consist of my dad, brother, myself, dad's friend John and often my mother's 2 uncles Frank and Floyd. Altogether there would be perhaps 6 dogs hunting with us. Sometimes we would get as many as 15 or more rabbits, a few quail and perhaps a pheasant or two. Sometimes early in the season we might even bag a couple of woodcock. We would hold back a few rabbits for our consumption and often would offer cleaned rabbits to our neighbors. Mom would batter them up and fry them. Of course we had to eat them rather carefully because occasionally we would bite into a number 6 shot or two.

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(Gramps with Snooky & a pup) -------------------- (My sleeping and hunting companion- Chico)

While in college at Missouri University (Columbia) in the late 1960's and again in the 70's I continued to hunt but without a dog. I'd walk the RR tracks of the now defunct MKT RR and kick up rabbits. I think that one of the reasons that I married my wife was that she was the only girlfriend that I dated who could cook a rabbit. In the early 80's, we owned and operated a cottage and campground business in the White Mountains of New Hampshire but would return to Missouri for the winters. The Yankees would often say that we were going south for the winter. We rented farmhouses
during those years and our main meat diet was rabbits and quail- only now I used a classic double barrel Fox Stearlingworth 20 gauge shotgun. I had no beagles then but hunted with my Golden Retriever. Of course he wasn't able to circle rabbits but could sniff out and stand above a hidden rabbit and on command rouse it and retrieve. At this time we generally cooked our game on a rotisserie oven- which I think is the best was to prepare them.

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(Buck- 1983)
 
Rabbit is very tasty and when I was in the Army, the Chow Hall had fried rabbit almost as often as fried chicken. My favorite method of cooking rabbit is braising slowly in red wine. Prep is similar to above, then brown the rabbit in a dutch oven with some duck fat (anything made with duck fat is better.) Remove the rabbit, sweat some onions, celery and carrots in the drippings, add a bay leaf and some rosemary, salt and pepper, throw the rabbit back in with half a bottle of red wine and chicken stock. Heat in a 200' oven (or bury in coals) and cook until everything falls apart at the slightest touch 4-6 hours. Serve over rice. Goes really well with buttered baguette.
 
Some years ago a friend and his family, including two young daughters, were dining at Colonial Williamsburg, and the adults at least were trying the period dishes. He had venison, so his wife teasingly told the girls that Daddy was eating Bambi. What she overlooked was that she had ordered rabbit - Mommy's eating Thumper ;)
 

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