.…in which Kitchencounterculture explores local food, locavorism, veganism, climate impacts of diet, and A MASSIVE LIST OF RABBIT RECIPES from a really great collection of cookbooks…
In my freezer are two rabbits, which a local man, H, the getting-elderly but still a-hunting brother of a friend, had in his freezer. For £3 each it was hardly a sale but rather an exchange. “Cook it like a chicken,” he advised, and told me he’d cut it in seven pieces: two back legs, 2 front legs, two middle bits and a “bonnet” (the ribs). He recommended I “casserole” it: fry the pieces in a pan with carrots and onions, then tip it in a roasting tin with gravy, or wine, or beer.
My friend, H’s brother P, said H would have hung it for a few hours after bringing it home (probably this time with a ferret not a rifle — I didn’t think to ask but will, and will update here), then gutted it, then hung it again for a few days before skinning and putting it into parts. These are men who’s childhoods would have been 70 years ago. H remembers his mother Sybyl roasting rabbit very plainly, but she would never eat anything wild herself, though duck was also on the menu for these country children of mid-Wales back then.
Kitchen Counter Culture 